California Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday blasted President’s Trump’s latest refugee ban, saying it undermines American values without improving security.
“This latest attempt by the Trump Administration to ban new immigrants and refugees from Muslim-majority countries, like the first attempt, undermines our nation’s core values, jeopardizes our national security, and hurts our economy,” Harris, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“Refugees fleeing war and violence, who have cleared a two-year vetting process, should not arrive in the United States only to have the doors shut,” she said.
The new order, signed privately by the President on Monday morning, temporarily bans travel from six Muslim-majority countries, but removes Iraq from the list. It also halts all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months, but removes the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. There is a 10-day grace period before it takes effect.
Harris said she welcomed the removal of Iraq from the list, but said the Trump administration “still has an obligation to provide evidence of a national security threat posed by immigrants and refugees from the remaining six countries.”
She said ISIS will use the new ban as a recruitment tool while “researchers, engineers, academics, and entrepreneurs” are turned away.