SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
muslim ban
The US Is Slamming the Door on Children From Gaza; I Saw Their Faces
This is Muslim Ban 2.0: treating every Palestinian from Gaza as a threat, as if even wounded children were anything other than victims of Israeli genocide.
Aug 26, 2025
Farah doesn’t know me. I was just one of 100 people who gathered at San Francisco International Airport when she arrived last year. I work for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and we had invited the media to cover her story. HEAL Palestine, a humanitarian nonprofit, had arranged for her medical treatment in the Bay Area after she lost her eye and leg in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
Now, the State Department has announced it is blocking new visas for Palestinians from Gaza. On X, the department stated: “All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”
In plain terms, this means slamming the door on children like Farah and others I’ve seen arrive in the Bay Area. Ahmed came through San Francisco carrying his own war injuries and trauma, clinging to the hope that here, at least, he could heal. Just weeks ago, three more children made it through: Layan, 14, burned and struck by shrapnel when her school was bombed. Anas, 8, who lost his father in an airstrike that crushed his leg. Ghazal, 6, wounded when an Israeli bomb exploded while her family was displaced in Rafah.
These are the children that Laura Loomer and Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) call “terrorists.” Loomer posted videos of some of the most recent arrivals and demanded that the State Department ban entry to “Islamic invaders.” That’s not just cruelty—it’s Islamophobia, plain and simple.
The same government that funds and arms Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is now moving to stop even the few wounded children who might otherwise reach safety and care.
And it worked. The State Department’s move to stop visas for Gazans echoes the same fearmongering behind US President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban. This is Muslim Ban 2.0: treating every Palestinian from Gaza as a threat, as if even wounded children were anything other than victims of Israeli genocide.
That is what dehumanization looks like: You stop seeing children as children. You don’t see the burns on their skin, the missing limbs, the trauma etched into their faces. You don’t see the mothers and fathers carrying them through bombed-out streets, desperate just to keep them alive.
The same government that funds and arms Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is now moving to stop even the few wounded children who might otherwise reach safety and care. The cruelty is staggering.
When Layan, Anas, and Ghazal arrived at the San Francisco airport, I saw Farah again—this time with her prosthetic eye and leg. She cried as she welcomed the newcomers.
These children are our shared responsibility, and to deny that is to deny our own humanity. James Baldwin understood this truth when he wrote: “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump's New Blanket Travel Bans Denounced as 'Beyond Shameful'
While advocacy groups vow to fight the unlawful order, one Democratic lawmaker said, "We cannot continue to allow the Trump administration to write bigotry and hatred into U.S. immigration policy."
Jun 05, 2025
Progressive lawmakers, civil rights groups, and humanitarians responded with outrage and condemnation overnight and into Thursday after President Donald Trump announced a blanket travel ban on 12 countries and harsh restrictions on seven others, calling the move a hateful and "unlawful" regurgitation of a policy he attempted during his first term.
In total, the executive order from Trump's White House would impact people and families from 19 countries. Twelve nations would face a total ban: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. People from seven other nations would face severe restrictions: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
In a video posted to social media late Wednesday night, Trump cited this week's attack, carried out by a lone individual in Colorado, to attempt to justify the need for the far-reaching restrictions, which the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, decried as "unnecessary, overbroad and ideologically motivated."
"Just like his first Muslim Ban, this latest announcement flies in the face of basic morality and goes directly against our values. This racist policy will not make us safe, it will separate families and endanger lives. We cannot let it stand." —Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
While the order sparked fresh condemnation, it does not come as a surprise from the Trump administration, which has made xenophobic rhetoric and anti-immigrant policy a cornerstone of its tenure. As the Washington Post reports:
Reinstating a travel ban has been a long-standing campaign promise for Trump. During his first term, he initially barred travel from seven Muslim-majority countries — under what became known as "the Muslim ban."
After legal challenges, updated versions expanded the list to eight countries, including North Korea and Venezuela. President Joe Biden revoked the policy in 2021.
"Automatically banning students, workers, tourists, and other citizens of these targeted nations from coming to the United States will not make our nation safer," said Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR, in response to Trump's new order. "Neither will imposing vague ideological screening tests that the government can easily abuse to ban immigrants based on their religious identity and political activism."
Even with the exceptions outlined in Trump's executive order, said Awad, "this new travel ban risks separating families, depriving students of educational opportunities, blocking patients from access to unique medical treatment, and creating a chilling effect on travelers."
Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Pramila Jayapal of Washington spoke out forcefully against the presidential order.
"This discriminatory policy is beyond shameful," said Omar in reaction to the news. "Just like his first Muslim Ban, this latest announcement flies in the face of basic morality and goes directly against our values. This racist policy will not make us safe; it will separate families and endanger lives. We cannot let it stand."
In her statement, Jayapal said there "are a myriad of reasons that people come to the United States, from travel and tourism to fleeing violence and dangerous situations. This ban, expanded from Trump's Muslim ban in his first term, will only further isolate us on the world stage."
Jayapal continued by saying the "discriminatory policy," which she noted is an attack on legal immigration processes, "not only flies in the face of what our country is supposed to stand for, it will be harmful to our economy and our communities that rely on the contributions of people who to America from this wide range of countries. Banning a whole group of people because you disagree with the structure or function of their government not only lays blame in the wrong place, it creates a dangerous precedent."
Referencing the broader approach of Trump's policies, Jayapal accused Trump of "indiscriminately taking a chainsaw to our government, destroying federal agencies that keep us safe, indiscriminately cutting jobs, and hindering our progress across research fields. This will only further hurt our country, and cannot be allowed to stand."
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) offered a similar assessment:
Oxfam America also slammed the announcement.
"A new travel ban marks a chilling return to policies of fear, discrimination, and division," said Abby Maxman, the group's president and CEO.
"By once again targeting individuals from Muslim-majority countries, countries with predominantly Black and brown populations, and countries in the midst of conflict and political instability, this executive order deepens inequality and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, racist tropes, and religious intolerance," said Maxman. "This policy is not about national security—it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States."
The travel ban on predominantly Muslim-majority nations attempted by Trump during his first term sparked large public protests as well as a wave of legal challenges. The new ban is likely to garner a similar response.
"This latest travel ban would deny entry to individuals and families fleeing war, persecution, and oppression, forcing them to remain in dangerous conditions. It will prevent family reunifications, and America’s historical legacy as a welcoming nation will be further eroded," said Maxman. "Oxfam will continue to advocate to ensure that this ban is struck down. The U.S. must uphold the dignity and rights of all people, no matter their religion or country of origin."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Dear Europe: Time to Confront Your Hypocrisy on Trump's America
If we want to understand the political and material conditions that make anti-democratic movements like Trumpism possible, then we must openly and honestly confront how our own apathy in the face of eroding rights for society's most vulnerable.
Apr 16, 2025
The United States is witnessing a collapse in travel and tourism from Europe, often based on a fear of what could happen when the U.S. border is reached. Many Europeans are refusing to purchase U.S. products and services in protest against the Trump administration. Solidarity is also being expressed for U.S. university professors and students in the wake of crackdowns on academic freedom and free expression on campuses across the country.
As an American in Europe, and as someone who has consistently and publicly pointed to Trump’s obvious anti-democratic ideology, I completely understand these reactions. There is justified outrage over what is happening right now in the U.S.
This justification, however, cannot hide an uncomfortable truth. Namely, that Europeans (and many of my fellow Americans) have for decades been more than happy to ignore state violence and the abuse of human rights committed by the United States so long as the victims were poorer people in “other” parts of the world, or poorer people in marginalized sections of U.S. society.
The U.S. has the death penalty, the application of which had been proven to be overtly discriminatory and racist. The U.S. has a long history of supporting regimes engaged in human rights abuses, including the suppression of academic freedom. The U.S. has for decades interfered with democratic elections across the globe, often subverting the will of the people. The U.S. destroyed Iraq in the interests of oil. The Obama government convicted more whistleblowers than all other U.S. administrations combined, and he also engaged in the wide-scale use of “extra judicial” drone warfare that led to the deaths of large numbers of civilians, including children. During his first administration, Trump passed a “Muslim Ban.”
Trumpism was made possible, at least in part, by a political and cultural environment where commitments to democracy and human rights—the supposed core of “Western values”—proved to be little more than flexible PR slogans.
These things, it seems, were tolerable to many European democrats. But when U.S. actions impacted Europeans coming to the U.S., caused damage to the European stock market or led to Europeans being denied jobs or research grants? Well, you have to draw the line somewhere.
And therein lies an even more uncomfortable truth. That Trumpism was made possible, at least in part, by a political and cultural environment where commitments to democracy and human rights—the supposed core of “Western values”—proved to be little more than flexible PR slogans.
I was a PhD student in Texas on September 11, 2001. I witnessed how my country (and the UK) engaged in the destruction of Iraq and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis as U.S. media (and many U.S. citizens) cheered the grotesque killing. As would become apparent, these were citizens who not only had nothing to do with September 11, but their country wasn’t even involved.
The Western reaction? A collective shoulder shrug.
Did European travel to the U.S. collapse? Did European universities call for an academic boycott of U.S. higher education and academic journals? Was there a call to end research collaboration? Did academics stop attending conferences in the U.S.? Did citizens boycott U.S. products? No. Europeans were happy to travel to the U.S. as soldiers slaughtered civilians in Iraq and the government passed the Patriot Act (allowed for mass surveillance).
Why? Because the people being killed, surveilled, stopped and searched at the airport were Muslims or other minorities, not Christian families from London, Stockholm, or Frankfurt on their way to New York or Disneyland. The Iraqi stock market crashed, not Spain’s. The slaughter in Gaza is a stain on global humanity, only made possible by U.S. weapons and financing. I have yet to hear a call for cutting cultural or political ties with the U.S. over this ongoing atrocity. If we are being completely honest with ourselves, we should at least admit that, because of its massive global reach, boycotting the U.S. would have a major impact on our daily life in ways that boycotts of other nations simply do not. So we do not do it.
My argument is simple. If we want to understand the political and material conditions that make anti-democratic movements like Trumpism possible, then we must openly and honestly confront how our own apathy about the violation of the rights of the weakest in society can be exploited and expanded to later violate the rights of groups usually seen as “safe” from such exploitation.
There is plenty of blame for Trumpism to go around. That sometimes means a painful look inward.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular