The Islands’ Sounder: Larsen slams immigration executive order

Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) today released the following statement after President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring citizens from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days, suspending admission of all refugees for 120 days and slashing the number of refugees the United States will accept in FY 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000. Unlike Trump’s original executive order, today’s policy does not include Iraq among the countries whose citizens are barred from entering the United States, Syrian refugees are banned for 120 days rather than indefinitely and people with existing visas and green cards will still be allowed to enter.

“The President learned little from the last failed executive order, which plunged the country into chaos and, thanks to Washington state’s leadership, was rejected by the courts,” said Larsen, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. “The intent of this new policy – which is to vilify Muslim immigrants and refugees – is just as morally decrepit and unabashedly un-American as the original. This will not make our country safer.”

Larsen has cosponsored the No Religious Registry Act, a bill that would prohibit the U.S. government from collecting information or utilizing a registry to classify individuals on the basis of religious affiliation.