Trump already built a wall two years ago. Will the new Congress tear it down?
I remember this day two years ago, a few days after Trump’s inauguration, when the murmurs started. Trump was reportedly pressing forward with a promise rooted in hate. A leaked memo outlined how the Muslim Ban would be instituted: a total ban on Muslim-majority countries that had weak political positions in the U.S. A ban on the countries Trump could get away with, for now.
The largest banned group would be my community — Iranians. And, based on our reading of the leaked memo, it wouldn’t matter if you had a visa or even a green card — if you were from Iran or one of the other banned countries and were not inside the U.S., you would be banned for the indefinite future. This represented a big, beautiful wall but instead of concrete or steel slats, it would be erected at American consulates throughout the world and keep people out based on their national origin and religious background.
That Friday afternoon it became official. Trump’s first major action as President of the United States was to bar our loved ones from coming to the U.S. legally.
I remember the confusion and despair in the texts, calls, and messages we received from Iranian Americans. Searching for their loved ones who disappeared at the airport, begging for help to figure out if a parent had been pulled off a U.S.-bound plane in a third country or was being held inside an American airport.
I also remember the feeling of pride and solidarity as thousands of Americans — of all national and religious backgrounds — poured into airports to say this was not acceptable. We do not ban people based on nationality or religion. We do not turn our backs to refugees fleeing war and violence. We do not separate families.
In the two years since that fateful day, the ban has been challenged in Congress by our Democratic allies only to be defended by Republicans who protected Trump by blocking a vote to repeal the abhorrent ban.
It was challenged in the courts where the original ban was struck down, only to be revised and dressed up by the administration, to be challenged, struck down, re-written, and reinstated. Ultimately, the latest ban was upheld by the Supreme Court and continues to pose insurmountable challenges for impacted communities. We don’t talk about it as much as we used to. But if you listen, you’ll hear from communities like ours about how spouses continue to be separated. Families make do with relationships sustained only through phone calls. Parents watch their children get married on computer screens from thousands of miles away. Terminally ill relatives say their goodbyes on Skype.
Above all, what haunts me most is that the ban continues on in silence. It has become a way of life. A humiliation we have internalized. A daily indignity we avoid talking about out of pride and powerlessness.
A lot has happened in the United States in these past two years and we’re dealing with more issues than we can count.
But we will not allow the ban to be forgotten. And we will end it.
With a Democratic majority in the House, the vote on whether to repeal the Muslim Ban that was blocked by Paul Ryan for two years can finally move forward. While the prospects of repealing in the Republican-run Senate are dim for now, it is crucial the House majority make its voice heard that all walls are unacceptable — including a ban now taking place in the shadows — and to act instead of acquiescing to the ban becoming the status quo.
Meanwhile, the House’s power to investigate and subpoena the administration can yield immediate practical impacts. At last count, less than 3% of eligible waivers are being issued. Consular officials have revealed that the process is a sham and they are essentially instructed to figure out how to avoid issuing any waivers. Only the most extraordinary cases seem to get through, and often only through public pressure. Even when a dying Iranian-American cancer patient could be saved by an (Iranian) family member’s bone marrow, the waiver to come to the U.S. was only issued after the Administration was blasted in the media.
The new Congress can force the Administration to reveal what is going on with these waivers and force them to fix it until we can repeal the ban for good. They can investigate the “extreme vetting” and other measures that have managed to reduce visas from Muslim majority countries writ large, not just the ones Trump was able to ban.
With the new Congress, we can finally turn the tide against this abomination. But only if Speaker Pelosi and Congressional Democrats make tearing down Trump’s first wall a priority. And only if, instead of suffering in silence, those of us impacted and our allies who turned out to airports to stand with us two years ago make their voices heard once again.
If you are ready to relaunch this battle to end the Muslim Ban for good, sign up here.
