The Greater Los Angeles Area Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), in partnership with the Southern California civil rights and interfaith communities, responded Jan. 30 to the detention of Muslim travelers at airports as a result of the Executive Order banning refugees and immigrants from Muslim majority countries.
On. Jan. 26, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that restricted immigrants and refugees from seven Middle East and North African countries from entering the United States. According to a statement issued by CAIR-LA, Customs and Border Patrol agents detained hundreds of Muslim travelers and was unresponsive to court orders staying the Executive Order.
“This weekend’s protests with thousands of participants at airports across the country demonstrate the true values of the American people,” said CAIR-LA’s Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. “This was only one of the several discriminatory executive orders signed in Trump’s first week in office. In the coming weeks and months, we must continue to stand united against the actualization of Trump’s long-promised bigoted policies, so that those who are most vulnerable are not further marginalized.”
Joining Ayloush at the press conference in Anaheim was Caitlin Sanderson, deputy director of Advocacy/Staff Attorney, ACLU; Sylvia Kim, regional director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice; Ameena Mirza-Qazi, Executive Director, NLG-LA; Julio Perez, executive director, Orange County Labor Federation; Polo Morales, Political Director, CHIRLA; Sheikh Mustafa Umar, vice chair, Shura Council of Southern California; and Rabbi Stephen Einstein, member of the CLUE board and executive committee.
Also on Jan. 30, CAIR-LA announced the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of more than 20 named and “john doe” individuals challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s recent “Muslim ban.” Ayloush is one of the 15 plaintiffs to sue President Donald Trump over the unconstitutionality of the “Muslim Exclusion Order.”
“My aim with this federal lawsuit, as an American and as a civil rights activist, is to hold the president accountable to our Constitution,” said Ayloush.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Virginia, states that the executive order is unconstitutional because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith in Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
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