Jewish Advocates Slam Trump for ‘Ironic’ Anti-Refugee Push on Holocaust Remembrance Week
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis January 25, 2017
The president of the Jewish refugee aid group HIAS called the immigration-related executive orders President Donald Trump plans to sign today “a total violation of our values.”
“We find it particularly ironic that he’s chosen the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day to wall out refugees and immigrants and to put a ban on refugees,” said Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS.
According to reports, Trump will issue executive orders Wednesday authorizing the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. He is also planning an executive order along the lines of the Muslim ban he proposed during the campaign, which would suspend immigration from Muslim-majority countries, according to the New York Times.
Excluding a temporary ban after the September 11 attacks, Hetfield said, “The last time such a ban was enacted was 1921.” Since September 11, Hetfield said that refugee vetting has become extraordinarily stringent. “It can’t possibly be more any more extreme without totally crippling the refugee program and making it totally ineffective,” he said.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
