| (ANAHEIM, CA, 6/26/18) — The Greater Los Angeles Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), a branch of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today decried the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Muslim Ban 3.0 to remain in effect.
In a 5-4 decision, the court reversed a lower court’s injunction that had—until December 2017—prevented the Trump Administration from using Muslim Ban 3.0 as a basis for denying visas to foreign nationals from eight affected countries. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote: ““A reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was driven primarily by anti-Muslim animus, rather than by the Government’s asserted national-security justifications. Even before being sworn into office, then-candidate Trump stated that ‘Islam hates us.’” “This ban and the ones before it have not contributed to an increased safety for Americans. They have only propagated unwarranted fear and mistrust of law-abiding Muslims from around the world attempting to lawfully enter the country for work, for medical purposes, to visit family or to attend school,” said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. “This is not the end of the road. It is a setback. We, along with our civil rights allies, will continue to mobilize our communities, and engage elected officials and the media to challenge this ban.” “The Supreme Court’s decision today is disappointing, but we will continue fighting against the Muslim Ban. Innocent American citizens and their families will have to deal with the repercussions of this ban. We will continue pushing against an administration that separates families through Islamophobic and xenophobic polices,” said CAIR-LA Immigrants’ Rights Managing Attorney Farida Chehata. In its decision, the Supreme Court granted extreme deference to the Trump Administration, which gives the administration the green light to inject discrimination back into our immigration system. Since the Trump administration’s first attempt to ban Muslim immigration to the United States, CAIR has filed legal challenges to each of the ban’s permutations. SEE CAIR’S first Muslim Ban lawsuit:https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/31/sarsour_v_trump_palestinian_american_activist In the Supreme Court, CAIR had filed an amicus brief on behalf of six individuals who successfully obtained an injunction against Muslim Ban 3.0 from a federal court in Maryland. READ CAIR’S BRIEF: https://tinyurl.com/CAIRAmicusBrief [NOTE: CAIR and the Brennan Center for Justice filed the lawsuit in October 2017. On appeal, that case, Zakzok v. Trump, was consolidated with two others and was jointly decided by the Fourth Circuit.] SEE: ‘The Words of the President’ Doom Trump Travel Ban, Fourth Circuit Says CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Eugene W. Fields, 714-776-1847 or efields@cair.com |
