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For Immediate Release
January, 30 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
SUSANA FLORES, (915) 525 2434, susana@communicationsshop.us
FERNANDA DURAND, fernanda@communicationsshop.us
NPNA Condemns Expanded Travel Ban as Back-Handed Attempt to Dismantle Refugee Programs
WASHINGTON
The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) today released a statement regarding a newly expanded travel ban that will leave even more refugees in peril throughout the world. The list of countries now includes Nigeria, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, and Tanzania.
The new rules would add immigration restrictions and even restrict travel from those countries, but not completely prohibit all citizens from entering the U.S.
Basma Alawee, former refugee and current organizer with Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) FLIC, an NPNA Member Organization, said the following:
"While the administration continues expanding its travel ban, refugees and families remain in peril in many countries across the world. This is an outright attempt to discriminate against people on religious, racial and ethnic grounds and to dismantle the refugee resettlement program, which benefits mainly African and other Global South countries and has saved thousands of lives throughout the decades. There are people with legitimate claims of persecution who will now be left with no recourse. Whereas once the United States was the beacon of hope and freedom for the rest of the world, now the U.S. is just another nation that turns its back on people who need help most."
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The failed vote was another stumble for supporters of renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets the federal government surveil the electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the US. The authority is set to lapse next Friday.
Advocates have long demanded reforms to the law, noting that US intelligence agencies have relentlessly abused it to spy on Americans.
Sean Vitka, executive director of Demand Progress, called Friday's vote a "resounding defeat for opponents of privacy," arguing it "shows that there is no path forward for FISA without a warrant requirement."
"Clear majorities of Americans across the nation, and in Congress, do not want the government bypassing the courts to hoover up our private, personal data," said Vitka. "If the White House and congressional leadership want to renew FISA, they have to stop ignoring this obvious fact and allow votes on real privacy reforms."
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Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents more than 800,000 federal workers, said Wednesday's order was "a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
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