Release date:
1/29/2017
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today made the following statement on President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration:
“America is a nation of immigrants. Throughout our history, we have welcomed people from foreign lands who seek a better life and in the process enrich the quality of ours. While some Americans were already here and others were brought here forcibly, millions of our ancestors came to this land to enjoy liberty and pursue happiness. We are the beneficiaries of their ambition and America’s tolerance.”
“President Trump’s crude ban on refugees and on people from certain countries, including those who are already permanent residents or hold a green card, from entering the country is not who we are as a nation. It also puts us at greater risk.”
“The human consequences are terrible – an Iraqi translator who served with American troops for a decade detained at JFK airport upon entry to the United States; a Clemson professor born in Iran who has a green card on the way back home to South Carolina from visiting family abroad yanked off a plane in Dubai; an Israeli Jew born in Yemen who has a green card uncertain if he can return home to the United States; a Syrian refugee family who had been vetted and was booked on a flight tomorrow to Chicago denied entry. The list goes on.”
“Trump is doing immeasurable damage to our nation’s standing in the world – a source of our strength – and is putting us all in greater danger. Trump’s action signals to the world that America sees all Muslims as terrorists. In the process, he actually strengthens the hands of ISIS, making it easier for them to recruit new terrorists, and undermines the United States with our allies in the Middle East whose help we need to fight ISIS.”
Contact:
Laura Brewer (919) 716-6484
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