During his 2016 campaign, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed to institute a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and declared “Islam hates us.” Within his first week in office, he delivered on this campaign promise and issued the first executive order, banning nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, suspending entry for Syrian refugees indefinitely, and prohibiting other refugees from entering the country.
After several federal judges filed to block the order, President Trump issued a second ban, which removed Iraq from the original order. Following the third iteration, signed in September 2017, the ban included five Muslim majority
countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen – as well as suspending entry of Venezuelan and North Korean officials.
On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld the President’s third iteration of the discriminatory Muslim Ban. With a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS deemed that it was within the President’s power through the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to enforce suspending the entry of individuals into the United States.
The Muslim Ban has separated families, denied individuals of life-saving medical procedures, and prohibited others from visiting their family within the United States. In addition, it has contributed to the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence by promoting a dangerous myth that Muslims are a foreign “other,” not part of American society, and therefore, pose a threat.