Democrats are trying to repeal Trump's 'Muslim ban' with new legislation

Congressional Democrats have launched a counteroffensive against President Trump's "Muslim ban."

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), backed by a host of other Democratic members of Congress, filed legislation that, if passed, would end Trump's executive order, which banned travelers to the United States from five Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. (North Korea and Venezuela, which are not Muslim-majority countries, are also on the list.)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, tweeted her support for the bill on Tuesday evening.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Coons held a press conference Wednesday morning introducing the legislation and tweeted that the bill has the support of "nearly 400 civil rights, faith, national security, and community organizations." He said on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday that in addition to repealing this particular ban, the bill would narrow presidential powers to implement similar measures in the future.

Trump's executive order was upheld 5-4 by the Supreme Court last year, as a majority of the justices concluded the president was operating within the law based on questions of national security. The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, argued the ban was racially focused.

The Hill reports the new bill is unlikely to become law, even if it passes the House, because of the Republican-majority Senate and Trump's veto power. Coons has acknowledged the bill's likely failure but says it "is still worth articulating that there is a legal path towards keeping our country safe and narrowing the power of the executive so that a future president does not do this again."