Jewish groups condemned an executive order issued by President Donald Trump banning new visas for citizens from six Muslim-majority countries.
Trump on Monday signed an order blocking for 90 days new visas for citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Iraq, which was included in an earlier version of the order that was blocked by federal judges, was not included in the new order.
The order, which is effective March 16, also bans all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days.
HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, urged Jews to fight back against the order.
“We will resist all attempts to vilify refugees,” the group wrote on Twitter. “The U.S. Jewish community owes its very existence to a tradition of welcoming refugees.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights also condemned the measure.
The executive order “continues to effectively close our borders to Muslims, and flagrantly violates America’s longstanding, values-driven commitment to serving as a safe haven for refugees,” said a statement by the rabbinic group released Monday. “Masked as an effort to ensure national security, this new executive order is more of the same Islamophobia that targets Muslims by reinstating the discredited vetting procedures, established after September 11, 2001, aimed at men from Muslim-majority countries.”
Jewish groups came out almost unanimously in opposition to the earlier version of the executive order last month, including organizations representing Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews. The Zionist Organization of America was the only major Jewish group to unreservedly support the executive order.
