Rep. Keith Ellison says Trump "can’t deny that this is a Muslim ban"
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) on Sunday blasted President Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, saying it is a “Muslim ban” no matter what the administration chooses to call it.
“They can’t deny that this is a Muslim ban -- it is a Muslim ban,” Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “On the campaign trail, he said he wanted a Muslim ban, he said on national television there would be other religious groups who receive priority -- it is a religiously based ban.”
Implementing a policy that takes religion into account is a slippery slope, Ellison said.
“If they can ban Muslims, why can’t they ban Mormons?” he asked. “Why can’t they ban Seventh Day Adventists? Why can’t they move into ethnic groups?”
Ellison said it’s important to understand that all the world’s terrorism doesn’t come from the seven countries included in the ban -- and sometimes even comes from within the U.S.
“The fact is that terrorism, a horrible scourge on the planet, comes from all kinds of places, some where the majority of the population is Muslim, some not,” Ellison said. “And it even comes from within our country -- and the fact is that we cannot make a religious-based distinction.”
He said refugees coming to the U.S. already go through a rigorous 18- to 24-month vetting process, and that many of the people seeking refuge are women and children.
“If you talk about banning Syrians, about three quarters of those folks are women and children, a full third of them are kids under 12 years old,” he said. “As the world is watching children, Syrian children dying in war, he’s saying … those children have no place of refuge in America, and I find that un-American.”