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House Democrats condemned President Donald Trump’s expansive new travel ban on Wednesday, calling it “discriminatory,” “dangerous” and “cruel, racist, and un-American.”
Trump signed the ban — which bars people from 12 countries from traveling to the U.S. — on Wednesday evening, reviving a contentious policy from his first term that was widely criticized for being xenophobic and Islamophobic. People from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be barred from entering the U.S. as of Monday, while those from seven other countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — will face travel restrictions as well.
Multiple House Democrats slammed Trump’s actions, which he claimed were in the name of national security and warranted, given the recent hate crime in Boulder, Colorado, which involved a suspect who is an Egyptian national. (Egypt is not among the countries addressed in the ban.)
“Trump’s use of prejudice and bigotry to bar people from entering the U.S. does not make us safer, it just divides us and weakens our global leadership,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said in a statement, adding that the policy is likely to lead to family separations.
The new proposal expanded upon the prior ban that Trump tried to institute during his first term, which barred travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. That ban ultimately faced challenges in court before the administration imposed a different version that former President Joe Biden repealed.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) was among the Democrats who noted that this year’s proposal was simply Trump’s repeat attempt.
“We’ve seen this horror show before,” she wrote in a post on X.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also spoke to the fallout the ban is likely to have for many people attempting to leave volatile situations in their home countries, including U.S. allies being targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan and other immigrants trying to escape civil war in Sudan.
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“Banning people fleeing dangerous countries like Afghanistan — a country where many people are in danger due to their work assisting the U.S. military — the Congo, Haiti and Sudan will only further destabilize global security,” Jayapal said in a statement.
Like during his first term, Trump’s latest ban is expected to face legal challenges, which could stymie or delay the administration’s efforts.
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