Jewish Advocates Slam Trump for ‘Ironic’ Anti-Refugee Push on Holocaust Remembrance Week
Arrival of Jewish refugee children, 1939. Image by wikimedia commons
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 nathankazis@forward.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
