Donald Trump

President Donald Trump signs an executive order on extreme vetting during an event at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(Susan Walsh)

Oregon's U.S. Senators are decrying executive orders signed Friday by President Donald Trump that aim to curtail refugee immigration to the United States, and travel into the country from seven majority-Muslim nations.

The White House has not released full-text copies of the executive orders, but drafts have been obtained by the media. They show Trump's orders plan to ban people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States until April 27. A refugee immigration program also will be halted until Cabinet-level officials determine there is proper vetting of potential emigres.

Trump campaigned on a promise to tighten boarders and called for "extreme vetting" of immigrants and refugees. In remarks given Friday at the Pentagon, he said his executive orders will "keep radical Islamic terrorists" out of the country.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said in statements posted to Twitter that "any religious test for refugees is morally abhorrent and unconstitutional." Banning refugees is "unequivocally un-American and does not make us safer," he said.

Banning refugees fleeing persecution is unequivocally un-American & does not make us safer. — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 27, 2017

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a statement that Trump's orders are "a smokescreen for religious discrimination." The "true threat" to national security is spreading the "false narrative" that the United States is at war with Islam, he said.

Merkley said it is "extremely alarming" that the orders also establish so-called safe zones in Syria and other countries, because those areas may need to be defended by U.S. ground troops.

"Americans have been clear that they don't want to send their sons and daughters back into another interminable civil war in the Middle East," Merkley said.

He cautioned that Trump's executive orders may push the limits of his authority under the Constitution, and called on the president to seek approval for the plans from Congress.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

gfriedman@oregonian.com; 503-221-8209