Twenty-eight Asian Pacific American lawmakers and government officials, led by California State Treasurer John Chiang, penned a letter to President Donald Trump Wednesday denouncing his executive order issuing the refugee and travel ban, and urging him to reverse it.
“As Asian Pacific Islander Americans, we also know what it is like to be labeled ‘other,’ to become victims of state-sponsored racism, bigotry and xenophobia,” the letter reads, citing the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Japanese American internment during World War II.
Letter signers include congressional and state lawmakers from California, New York, Illinois and Virginia, mayors and city council members.
Proud of the leadership shown by 27 of my APIA colleagues as we join together to demand Trump reverse Muslim Ban… https://t.co/DxiyhhOZUD
— John Chiang (@JohnChiangCA) February 1, 2017
The travel ban, issued last Friday, stops the entry into the U.S. of immigrants, refugees and legal visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. The ban has triggered tens of thousands of protesters across the country and around the globe, as well as dissent from a slew of lawmakers — including some Republicans — and prominent political figures.
Chiang, a Democrat, has announced his candidacy for the California governorship in 2018.
The letter reads, in part:
“We wrongly believed these shameful ill-begotten episodes had been consigned to the junk pile of American history — and that the sins of our past, seared into our social memory, would forever inform and guide our better future.
Yet, here we are. It is happening — in 2017 — leaving us shocked, angry, and forced to wear the shroud of indignity you have tossed so casually over the nation. Our Muslim brethren are being mistreated because of their faith, dress and customs. This is un-American.
President Trump, your executive order is breaking up families; separating children from parents; casting a pale over our centuries’ old rule of law; and punishing people because of the pigmentation of their skin and the deity they worship.
The history of Asian and Pacific Islander American communities allows us to walk in the shoes of Muslims, today. That is why we stand in solidarity with our fellow Muslim Americans and immigrants. We view your attack on them as an attack on us.”
