Theresa May calls Trump travel ban "wrong," "divisive"
British Prime Minister Theresa May waded into the international debate over President Trump’s travel ban Thursday, blasting the executive order as “wrong” during a news conference.
“We thought that was wrong, that was divisive,” May said of the ban, which halts entry into the U.S. for any refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. “It is not a policy that the United Kingdom would adopt.”
Mr. Trump announced the executive order shortly after May met with the president last month. At first, May was reluctant to comment on the ban, telling reporters shortly after it took effect that “the United States is responsible for the United States’ policy on refugees.”
But the British prime minister’s most recent reaction echoes objections from other foreign leaders to the ban, which affects nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the executive order last month, saying that “the necessary and decisive fight against terrorism in no way justifies a general suspicion against people of certain beliefs, in this case people of the Muslim faith or from a certain origin.”
Closer to home, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent out a tweet in January targeting the ban’s focus on refugees and proclaiming diversity as “our strength.”
Mr. Trump’s executive order currently faces a legal obstacle in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of judges is expected to weigh in on whether a temporary restraining order on the ban’s implementation should be lifted while lawsuits against the order proceed.
