US Muslim leaders filed suit against
President Donald Trump Monday over an immigration order that
they said was a
“fear-mongering” attempt at keeping members of their religion out of the
country. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, joined 26 others as plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleging that Trump’s
temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries was in fact a
“Muslim exclusion order” that violates the US constitution’s religious freedom
protections.
“Donald Trump’s executive order is
not based on national security, it is based on fear-mongering,” Awad said
Monday. “This is not a Muslim ban, it is a Muslim exclusion order.” Besides
excluding Muslim refugees and immigrants from abroad, the suit alleges Trump’s
executive order will force out US-resident Muslims from those seven countries
“by denying them the ability to renew their lawful status or receive
immigration benefits… based solely on their religious beliefs.”
That will lead to “the mass
expulsion” of both immigrant and non-immigrant Muslims, the suit, filed in the
district court in Alexandria, Virginia, alleged. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit
include several CAIR officials, among them prominent Muslim-American lawyers
and activists. They also include unnamed plaintiffs described as legal
residents and visitors to the country who would, if they left temporarily,
would not be able to return under Trump’s order. The suit said the order,
announced Saturday, reflected anti-Muslim sentiments that Trump expressed
during the presidential campaign.
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