Expanded Travel Ban Still a Muslim Ban, Still Xenophobic

January 31, 2020, New York – In response to today’s announcement that the Trump administration has expanded its travel ban to six additional countries (Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar Kyrgyzstan for all immigrant visas, and Sudan, Tanzania from the diversity visa lottery program), the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:

Trump is marking the anniversary of his first unlawful, discriminatory act as president - the Muslim Ban - with an expansion of that Ban to even more countries. With that, he’s sending a message that the xenophobic platform that he ran on is one that he will continue to deliver on regardless of legal and human consequences. But the Muslim Ban was unlawful then, and it remains unlawful now. CCR will continue to fight alongside communities, as we have been. 

This New Muslim Ban makes it clear: separating families and peddling white supremacy are this administration’s preferred modes of dividing this country. Once again, most of the countries Trump added today are Muslim or have substantial Muslim populations. They also include Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. From Trump’s earliest days in office—from vitriol on the campaign trail, to collective detention at Guantánamo, to mass visa denials for immigrants from specific countries—Muslims have been a consistently targeted group. Coupled with the targeting of immigrants and asylum seekers at the U.S. Southern border, new powers to block pregnant people from visiting that reek of misogyny, and Trump’s rapidly spreading immigration wealth test, this administration’s key immigration goal is clear: to end all non-whiteimmigration to the United States.