Former Secretary of State John Kerry was among former officials who filed a joint declaration rebuking the president’s executive order barring travel to the U.S. from citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries. | AP Photo Ex-top U.S. officials to court: Trump's travel ban could endanger troops and hurt national security

President Donald Trump’s travel ban is an unjustified executive order that “undermines” the nation’s national security, a group of top former national security and intelligence officials said Monday.

Former Secretaries of State John Kerry and Madeleine Albright and eight other top officials filed a joint declaration to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, rebuking the president’s executive order barring travel to the U.S. from citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries.


“We all agree that the United States faces real threats from terrorist networks and must take all prudent and effective steps to combat them, including the appropriate vetting of travelers to the United States,” they wrote. “We all are nevertheless unaware of any specific threat that would justify the travel ban established by the Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017. We view the Order as one that ultimately undermines the national security of the United States, rather than making us safer.”

They argue that the ban “cannot be justified on national security or foreign policy grounds,” disputing the notion that it meets its stated goal of keeping the nation safe from terrorists.

“To the contrary, the Order disrupts thousands of lives, including those of refugees and visa holders all previously vetted by standing procedures that the Administration has not shown to be inadequate. It could do long-term damage to our national security and foreign policy interests, endangering U.S. troops in the field and disrupting counterterrorism and national security partnerships,” they said.

But they didn’t stop there. They warned that the executive order will assist the Islamic State “by feeding into the narrative that the United States is at war with Islam,” harm relationships with Muslim communities “that law enforcement officials need to address the threat” and “have a damaging humanitarian and economic impact on the lives and jobs of American citizens and residents.”

“And apart from all of these concerns, the Order offends our nation’s laws and values,” they added.

The officials noted that no terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by individuals from any countries named in the executive order. Rather, the “overwhelming majority” of such attacks have come at the hands of U.S. citizens.

The travel ban, they said, was “ill-conceived, poorly implemented and ill-explained” — and “of unprecedented scope.”

“Blanket bans of certain countries or classes of people are beneath the dignity of the nation and Constitution that we each took oaths to protect,” they wrote. “Rebranding a proposal first advertised as a 'Muslim Ban' as 'Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States' does not disguise the Order’s discriminatory intent, or make it necessary, effective, or faithful to America’s Constitution, laws, or values.”

The declaration was filed by Kerry; Albright; Avril Haines, a former deputy CIA director and deputy national security adviser; Michael Hayden, former NSA and CIA director; John McLaughlin, a former deputy CIA director and acting director; Lisa Monaco, former White House deputy national security adviser; Michael Morrell, a former acting CIA director and deputy director; Janet Napolitano, a former homeland security secretary; Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary; and Susan Rice; a former national security adviser.