Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s sweeping travel ban on 12 countries and other travel restrictions announced yesterday:
“President Trump’s travel ban is not about making our country safer, it’s about slamming the door shut to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers for no reason other than that Trump doesn’t like their race or religion.
“Blanket travel bans arbitrarily discriminate and punish people who are seeking to enter our country legally, including Afghans fleeing the Taliban, and people seeking to reunite with their loved ones who are already in our country.
“This divisive ban is an affront to our values and a desperate attempt to change the subject as the Trump administration is driving up prices with reckless tariffs and putting health care for 16 million Americans who rely on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act on the chopping block.”
Senator Murray is a cosponsor of the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, introduced in February to prevent future bans by the Trump administration on Muslims or any other religious group by strengthening the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination based on religion.
In President Trump’s first term, Senator Murray cosponsored multiple bills to block President Trump’s discriminatory travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and its various subsequent iterations.
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