ST. PAUL, Minn. (Jan. 28, 2017) — U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-4) issued a statement Saturday condemning President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking the admission of refugees and discriminating against Muslim Americans and immigrants.
The statement described the executive order targeting refugees and Muslim immigrants as “cruel” and betraying of American values, and doing nothing to enhance national security.
“Turning away the world’s most vulnerable people — fully-vetted refugees fleeing war and persecution — does not make America safer,” McCollum said. “Discriminating against legal residents and immigrants based on their religion betrays our Constitution, provides a propaganda tool to terrorists, and demonstrates to our allies that the White House will abandon them for political expediency.”
The executive order is lacking of moral ambiguity and is intended to harm refugees and Muslims fleeing persecution, McCollum said.
“With so much at stake, now is the time for our entire community — faith leaders, business owners, workers and labor unions, public officials — to speak with one voice and oppose President Trump’s attack on our Minnesotan and American values,” she said. “Congressional Republicans must not silently support President Trump’s action out of political fear while thousands of fully-vetted refugees now fear for their lives. This is not a time for political cowardice, but for courage in the face of a policy that will needlessly destroy lives. On Monday, when Congress goes into session, Democrats and Republicans must stand united as Americans and reject this extreme presidential action. Anything less is to be complicit in President Trump’s cruel attack on immigrants and refugees.
“It is a sad irony that President Trump’s actions came on Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we also reckon with America’s refusal – out of sheer religious bigotry – to welcome refugees fleeing the Nazi regime. President Trump’s decision adds a new chapter to that national shame,” McCollum said.
Betty McCollum is a fine representative for Minnesota, but there is really little she can do other than condemn and protest. Well, the Trump Administration is here and it is doing exactly what I knew it would do. Folks like us who are not whites will be seeing this all the time now that Make America White Again is the mission of this administration. I really can’t blame Trump because he is doing exactly what he promised to do in the campaigns.
The people to blame are the third party people like Kline and Johnson and liberals like Sanders and their supporters. Given a historic chance to bury the Republican Party, Sanders, Johnson and Steins and their people instead insisted on personal gains and narrow political ideology. They somehow could not see what a Trump administration would do. Instead of uniting behind Hillary Clinton, they successfully planted hatred towards her and convinced many of their followers to not vote for her. In an election this close, if you did not vote for Hillary you voted for Trump. The result was a historic chance was missed. Instead of burying the Republicans and conservatism, liberalism is pushed back for generations while conservative, white privilege politics rule.
People of color should be prepared for more hateful and discriminatory politics from Washington. If you want to point finger, don’t blame Trump and his camp. He is doing what he promised to do. Blame those selfish and narrow-minded liberals for blowing it for all of us. Much like when they helped elect GWB, they helped put in a racist like Trump in power. Of course many of these liberals are white so they have nothing to worry about. But people like us are paying the price.