The Trump administration’s latest iteration of the Muslim ban, announced on Sunday night, is yet another failed attempt to repackage a white supremacist policy that is unconstitutional and in violation of international law. And despite eliminating Iraq from the list, and adding two non-Muslim-majority countries that have negligible number of migrants to the U.S., it’s patently obvious that the intent of this executive order remains to prevent Muslims from entering the U.S.

Everything this administration does feels like a poorly orchestrated shell game, with new attacks on public figures (the NFL) and vulnerable communities (immigrants, LGBTQ people, the disabled) launched just at the moment that the public might have finally fixed its eye on the shell that’s hiding the ball.

This is not sophisticated con artistry, and yet the administration argues, as it has before, that this executive order does not target Muslims.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Adding North Korea and Venezuela was the distraction. This is a Muslim ban. And like the first and second versions, Trump’s new ban is premised on a violation of First Amendment protections against religious discrimination, rooted in racist, anti-Muslim animus.

Whatever the courts ultimately say about the legality of this version of the Muslim ban, it is discriminatory and inhumane. We at CCR have known that since Day 1. We must continue to RESIST this administration and REJECT the politics of fear, Islamophobia, and white supremacy, and DEFEND our Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities in the courts, in the streets, and in front of the White House on October 18. 

We will not allow this to become the new normal. No Muslim ban ever, regardless of what Trump wants to call it.