Sunday, January 29, 2017

Washington Senators and Representatives Positions on Refugee Ban

I feel ashamed. But our leader appears to be shameless. Men and women that at great risk helped our soldiers in Iraq are being denied being unified with their families. We are no longer a beacon of hope. We are now less great.... so sad.

I do feel better about some of the response to the refugee ban by our Washington federal leaders. Responses thus far to Donald Trumps executive order restricting refugee entrance to the United States.

Maria Cantwell opposed

Patty Murray opposed

Jaime Herrera Beutler: So far no statement I could find.

Dan Newhouse via NatalieBrandK5 opposed

Rep. David G. Reichert: So far not statement I could find

Cathy McMorris Rogers via Facebook and KXLY4News in favor

Rick Larsen opposed

Susan Delbene opposed

Pramila Jayapal  and Release-individuals-detained-seatac-airport and Hail-judicial-orders-keeping-immigrants-being-turned-away opposed

Adam Smith opposed

Denny Heck opposed via Twitter:  Difficult to fit in 1 tweet how contrary this EO is to the Constitution & our values. It's just flat wrong. We will fight it.

Derek Kilmer opposed via Facebook:  We must keep Americans safe and secure, which is why we have a rigorous process for evaluating men, women, and children fleeing violence and seeking asylum in America. President Trump's blanket ban of refugees won't help us protect our homeland and goes against what our country stands for. There have been moments in our history where we have let fear stand in the way of what makes our nation great. Whether it was denying entry to Jews fleeing Nazism in Europe, or the internment of Japanese Americans, these moments are correctly judged as shameful exceptions to our values. This is one of those moments. I do not support having a religious litmus test for entry into our nation and, in the view of many constitutional scholars, such an approach runs afoul of the constitution the president and I both took an oath to uphold. I also do not support religious registries which is why I have cosponsored a bill that will make it illegal to register Americans by religion. We are going to remain vigilant and strike back against ISIL and other networks that would do us harm. But we must do it in a way that reflects our values and keeps America as a beacon of freedom for the world.

 

3 comments:

Dave said...

It's been my observation (that is to say, within my own limited personal experience) that just about everyone who says this EO is unconstitutional does not have any idea what is actually written in the Constitution regarding immigration, nor can they articulate just exactly what provision of the Constitution is being violated. The usual response contains some combination of "not who we are", "nation of immigrants", "equality", and the best tell of all... "I just think".

Why, it's almost as if 'unconstitutional' has become a code word for "I just really, really don't like it".

Oh and by the way, you can be sure there is already a Muslim registry being maintained by the three-letter agencies, and has been for some time.

Dan McShane said...

I did not raise the constitutional issue on this refugee order and would note most of the linked opposition statements do not either. There appears to be a legitimate constitutional argument regarding the religion test as well as some other due process issues, but I leave the constitutional arguments to the State Attorney Generals, ACLU and Department of Justice - they have had and will have their days in court.

Dan McShane said...

Seems there is a substantial constitution argument: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/federal-judge-in-seattle-halts-trumps-immigration-order/