(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) has released the following statement regarding his co-sponsorship of the Statue of Liberty Values Act (“SOLVE Act”), which would defund and rescind President Donald Trump’s executive order barring travel from Muslim countries and suspending the refugee program:

“As Thomas Paine said, America was conceived as a “haven of refuge” for people fleeing religious and political persecution. Last week, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump slammed the door on the world’s most desperate and needy people by instituting a sloppy and mean-spirited ban on refugees and persons coming from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Let’s be clear: Trump’s so-called “extreme vetting” policy is nothing more than xenophobia, modified by his own business interests, which saved the people of Saudi Arabia and Egypt from these exclusivity policies.

“President Trump’s anti-Muslim ban is not only arbitrary, punitive, and haphazard. It is also unconstitutional. The First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the government from selectively disadvantaging people based on religion.

“I’m proud to cosponsor the SOLVE Act to reaffirm a core democratic value: no refugee or immigrant should be denied entry to the United States because of religion or nationality. This legislation defunds President Trump’s outrageous and unconstitutional effort to ban Muslims, refugees, and immigrants from entering the United States.

“America must reject President Trump’s anti-Muslim ban and his callous refusal of refugees. This is not what America stands for. Thomas Jefferson said that, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” It is our duty to resist President Trump’s efforts to replace the Statue of Liberty with a wall of bigotry and exclusion.”

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Congressman Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Montgomery, Frederick, and Carroll counties. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Raskin is the Freshman Representative on the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Vice Chair and Liaison to New Members, and a Senior Whip for the House Democratic Caucus.