January 20, 2021

Washington, D.C. | mpac.org | January 19, 2021 – The Muslim Public Affairs Council commends President Joe Biden on the decision to reverse the Trump Administration’s Muslim Ban, formally known as Executive Order 13769, upon taking office today. The Ban is a blight on our nation’s ideals, a legalized form of religious discrimination, and a totem to the outgoing administration’s reactionary immigration policy. It is easy to forget, but the Muslim Ban was followed by heightened family separation policies, a court battle over the Trump administration’s DACA rescindment, efforts to curtail legal immigration through changes to the public charge rule and the asylum process, as well as the militarization of the southern border. The sum total of these moves betrayed the Trump administration’s expressly white nationalist immigration policy, wherein the lives of non-white immigrants are completely disregarded in the service of scoring political points or institutionalizing nativist bigotries. 

From the very beginning, we vocalized our opposition to the Ban, drafted legislation to defund it, and organized to ensure that any challenger to Trump’s reelection included rescinding the Ban among their policy platform priorities. This day would not have been possible were it not for our allies in Congress like Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA 27), who introduced the NO BAN Act, our many civil society partners, and the broader American Muslim community, who have historically stood up against bigotry in all of its forms.

We urge the Biden administration to maintain this issue as a priority throughout the several months that it will take the rescindment to be fully implemented. Furthermore, the administration must acknowledge and take the steps necessary to ensure the Ban’s rescindment is retroactively applied to decisions made between now and then. We ask the Biden administration provide an opportunity for reconsideration of all immigration decisions that the Muslim Ban impacted over the past four years, including those stuck in administrative processing. In its efforts to build back a better America, the Biden administration should work with Congress to legislate safeguards so that no bigoted immigration ban can ever be enacted again.

Rescinding the Muslim Ban is a starting point for the broader opportunity to achieve comprehensive immigration reform and an economic policy platform that attends to the social divisions that xenophobia plays on in the first place. The road ahead runs through DACA renewal and expansion, raising of the refugee resettlement cap, and expansion of programs that facilitate integration, language, and vocational training. Programs that promote access to health care, education and employment are equally critical to this effort. The road ahead requires comprehensive reform in the way that the U.S. government approaches marginalized communities.

MPAC maintains a commitment to advocate for all those affected by invasive surveillance, profiling, and institutionalized bigotry. This administration has sent a clear message to the outgoing Trump administration. We will communicate to all future administrations that Muslims are a part of the American fabric. We will not rest until every religious community and marginalized group can live without discrimination.