Some Christian leaders, many invoking the Biblical command to welcome the stranger, have lambasted US President Donald Trump’s Friday orders which have indefinitely banned Syrian refugees from the US and temporarily banned refugees from other countries and visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Media organisations have reported that under the bans, the US refugee program has been suspended for 120 days, all immigrants from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen have been banned for 90 days and immigrants from Syria have been banned indefinitely.
Mr Trump, who has denied the order is a ban on Muslims, said implementing the measures, aimed at keeping “radical Islamic terrorists” out of the United States, were one way to honor the sacrifices made by Americans who lost their lives on 11th September, 2001, and those fighting terrorism around the world.
“We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas,” he said. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”
The bans, which have met with criticism from Democrats, immigrant and civil rights groups around the world and sparked protests at US airports, have also provoked a sharp response from some Christian leaders in the US.
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said that Friday’s action was “a back-door bar on Muslim refugees, telling an entire faith group that they are not welcome on our shores”.
“Any attempt to ban Muslim refugees based on their religion betrays our values and sends the un-American message that there are second-class faiths. Our country, founded by immigrants who established religious freedom as a bedrock principle, is better than this. A threat to anyone’s religious liberty is a threat to everyone’s religious liberty, and we as Baptists stand with those facing religious persecution around the world, regardless of their faith.”
Scott Arbeiter, president of aid agency World Relief, said the lengthy delays imposed by the ban “further traumatises refugees, most of whom are women and children, keeps families separated and punishes people who are themselves fleeing the terror we as a nation are rightly fighting to end”.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Blase J Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said the weekend proved to be “a dark moment in US history”.
“The executive order to turn away refugees and to close our nation to those, particularly Muslims, fleeing violence, oppression and persecution is contrary to both Catholic and American values. Have we not repeated the disastrous decisions of those in the past who turned away other people fleeing violence, leaving certain ethnicities and religions marginalized and excluded? We Catholics know that history well, for, like others, we have been on the other side of such decisions.”
Bishop Joe S Vásquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, added that the conference “strongly disagreed” with the executive order.
“We believe that now more than ever, welcoming newcomers and refugees is an act of love and hope,” he said. “We will continue to engage the new administration, as we have all administrations for the duration of the current refugee program, now almost forty years. We will work vigorously to ensure that refugees are humanely welcomed in collaboration with Catholic Charities without sacrificing our security or our core values as Americans, and to ensure that families may be reunified with their loved ones.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Faith Voices for Immigration said that “rather than build a wall, the US should address the extreme poverty and violence that are too often at the root of migration”.
“We must ensure that immigrants are treated fairly in the workplace and have safe and decent places to live. Our immigration policy should make sure that families are not separated by deportations and when cities and localities offer them refuge, their citizens should not be penalised. Moreover, immigrant children must be cared for and get a good education.”
– with reporting from Religion News Service
