"Let’s call it what it is. This ban is a racist and anti-Islamic attempt to divide us up," Sanders said in a statement.

The former presidential candidate argued that if Trump "respected our traditions of religious freedom" he wouldn't have used "hateful, anti-Islamic rhetoric to justify" the executive order.

"A president responsible for keeping our citizens safe would not hand over ideological ammunition to terrorists seeking new recruits to kill Americans," Sanders, a member of Senate Democratic leadership, added.

ADVERTISEMENT

Senate Democrats have panned the revised order from the Trump administration, predicting it will face legal challenges and arguing it's "un-American."

The new order removed Iraq from the countries affected by the temporary travel ban and halts all refugee admissions to the U.S. for four months. The previous ban contained that provision but also halted Syrian refugee resettlement indefinitely.

It also lays out who is exempt from the ban and strikes language — which originally fueled speculation that it was meant to be a Muslim ban — giving preference to Christian refugees once resettlement restarted.

Sanders also knocked the executive order for going against guidance from the Department of Homeland Security.

"Even the Department of Homeland Security has said that citizenship is not a factor in terrorist threats," Sanders said.

Sanders pointed to a draft Homeland Security memo, obtained by The Associated Press , said that citizenship is an "unlikely indicator" of a terrorist threat to the United States.

A DHS spokeswoman told the AP late last month that the document was "incomplete" and doesn't include information from other corners of the intelligence community.