Trump's refugee plan draws ire from evangelicals, Europeans, and Democrats
President Trump came under widespread criticism Friday and Saturday after signing an executive order that bans U.S. entry from seven majority-Muslim nations for 90 days while suspending all refugee admissions for 120 days and instituting a preference for persecuted Christians once admissions resume.
"Christ calls us to care for everyone, regardless of who they are and where they come from," said Jenny Yang of World Relief, an evangelical organization that provides refugee resettlement services, in comments that reflect the uproar from a diversity of religious leaders. Some 2,000 clergy members signed a letter via the Interfaith Immigration Coalition which argues the United States "has an urgent moral responsibility to receive refugees and asylum seekers who are in dire need of safety."
Representatives of France and Germany likewise registered their alarm at the order, while British Prime Minister Theresa May refused to offer an opinion. In Washington, Democrats castigated the order. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said "tears are running down the checks of the Statue of Liberty" and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) labeled it "a betrayal of American values."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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