“For decades, we have granted safe haven to families fleeing persecution and violence,” said Conyers, who frequently holds “alternative” hearings when Democrats are in the minority. “Will we continue down that path of refuge, tolerance and inclusion pursued across parties and administrations, or will we veer down the path of intolerance, xenophobia and paranoia, as the current administration appears to be heading?”

As the “Muslim ban” approaches its one-week mark, after several revisions and losses in the courts, the congressional response to it has become largely partisan. While a number of Republicans in both houses criticized the executive order, none have endorsed Democratic legislation to roll it back. Despite — or because of — greater media focus on how paranoid sentiments about Islam have come from White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, criticism of the administration’s approach has become largely limited to the opposition.

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That opposition has linked arms with Muslim and human rights groups in a way that syncs with the critique of Islamic political influence seen on sites such as Breitbart News, formerly run by Bannon. Twice this week, Democrats gathered near the Capitol to give speeches promising to undo the ban. Twice, they praised witnesses and activists including from the ACLU and Amnesty International for helping to fight the executive order.

Twice, they were also joined by Khizr Khan, the Virginia lawyer who starred in a Democratic National Convention speech and a Hillary Clinton campaign ad about how Donald Trump insulted Muslims like his son, a fallen U.S. Army captain. At an outdoor event on Wednesday, Khan shook as he called Trump a hypocrite, pointing out that the mothers of Trump’s children are immigrants.

At Thursday’s forum, Khan told Democrats that Trump might be stopped only if the opposition wins large electoral victories.

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“I will walk barefoot to any congressional district you want to send me to,” he said.

What was striking about the Democrats’ solidarity with “Muslim ban” opponents was not that it was driven by the grass roots — that has been true for all of the party’s causes in 2016. It was the lack of clear evidence that digging in on the executive order fight was a political winner. Polling has been scarce, but until a Gallup survey out Thursday, finding the policy generally unpopular, every study found a plurality of voters generally liking Trump’s idea.

But after a brutal early-decade gerrymander, and two painful elections, the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate represent a more diverse America, generally, than the Republican caucuses. Several Democrats who attended this week’s protests told The Washington Post that they had been personally involved in negotiating for constituents, or people going though airports in their districts, to be let into the country.

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All were baffled by a Reuters report on “Islamic extremism,” which fed into an increasing Democratic certitude that the White House is slanting policies against racial and religious minorities.

“What’s he going to say — the country’s open season for certain kinds of ideologically motivated terrorists?” asked Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who represents Manhattan.

“I checked with my constituents on whether they have a preference, for being blown up by Islamic terrorists or non-Islamic terrorists, and every constituent I have is opposed to being blown up by either,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Terrorism is terrorism, and here in the United States, we’ve faced terrorism driven by foreign ideology and terrorism by domestic racist ideology.”

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Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a freshman who was Orlando’s police chief before running for Congress, said that any move by the administration to study “Islamic” terrorism while ignoring other forms was misguided.

“My number one priority in Congress is keeping our nation safe, but to single out, specifically, those of the Islamic faith, is exactly wrong,” Demings said.

During the 2016 campaign, however, Trump had cited the mass shootings at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub as a rationale for what would become the “Muslim ban.”

“I called for a ban after San Bernardino and was met with great scorn and anger,” Trump said in a speech after the Orlando massacre. “But many are saying that I was right to do so.”

Asked about how the Pulse shooting played into Trump’s policies, including the “Muslim ban” and the possible refocusing of terrorism investigations toward radical Islam, Demings was incensed.