An emergency hearing was held today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, to hear a request by HIAS and others to block the revised executive order enacting President Trump’s refugee and Muslim ban. That ban is set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 16, unless one of the three courts currently hearing challenges to the ban intervenes to restrain or enjoin the order.
“We are suing to save lives,” said HIAS Managing Attorney Liz Sweet. “If implemented, this revised Executive Order will create the same devastating consequences for tens of thousands of refugees who our government promised safety and freedom in the United States.”
In an op-ed published on Scribe, the Forward’s curated contributor network, Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer challenges the community “to commit to have at least one conversation with a family member, co-worker or friend on behalf of today’s refugees.”
The language of the ban may have changed slightly, but the result for refugees is still the same. Tens of thousands of refugees will remain in danger after they had already been approved to come to America.
On Wednesday night, HIAS filed an amicus or “friend of the court” brief in this case, in support of the plaintiffs. Our brief highlights some of the individuals who have been impacted by this order, to show the specific ways in which “the Executive Order is causing needless and unjustifiable irreparable harm to vulnerable refugees and their families.”
Legal challenges have suspended many parts of the Muslim ban, but our doors remain closed to some 60,000 vulnerable people seeking safety in this country. That hurts people like Eden, Sunam and Magan who have been separated from loved ones. The family reunions they had long hoped for now seem out of reach. We're challenging that in court.
HIAS is expanding its footprint in Central America with a brand new office in San Jose, Costa Rica dedicated to providing legal support and services to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers.
Over 200 Kindertransport survivors and descendants sent a letter to President Trump, urging him to keep America’s doors open to today’s refugees. “In the aftermath of World War II, the price for keeping America’s doors closed to refugees due to fear was made starkly clear. We are among the very few who were welcomed by a country and its citizens and therefore survived,” they write.
We cannot remain silent as Muslim refugees are turned away just for being Muslim, just as we could not stand idly by when the U.S. turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Europe during the 1930s and 40s. The Torah requires us to intervene. To stop these things from being done by our government and in our name.
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