Washington (March 6, 2017) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after the Trump administration released a new executive order banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries seeking to enter the United States. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that blocked people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary restraining order against the executive order, halting its implementation.

“If at first you don’t succeed on a travel ban, fail, fail, again,” said Senator Markey. “President Trump’s two travel ban executive orders are a bad movie with a bad sequel. The executive order remains blatantly discriminatory and still encourages the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to engage in religious-based questioning. We cannot allow the Trump administration to write bigotry into U.S. immigration policy. The new travel ban will continue to keep families separated and hurt universities and businesses in Massachusetts that have students and employees seeking to come to the United States. 

“This new travel ban will not make our nation safer and only serves as a recruitment tool for ISIS and other terrorists. The courts blocked Donald Trump’s first Muslim ban because it trampled on Constitutional rights, and I anticipate this new attempt to repackage it will meet the same fate.”