Many elected officials and community members in the North Shore have condemned an executive order, signed by president Donald Trump on Friday, which temporarily suspends all refugee admissions and blocks citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
“This executive order betrays basic American values for the sake of nationalistic, fearmongering campaign promises,” said Kathleen Rice, a Democratic House Rep. from Garden City, in a statement released on Friday.
“Trump wants us to turn our backs on the most vulnerable people in the world in the midst of a global refugee crisis,” she added.
Tom Suozzi, a Democratic House Rep. who lives in Glen Cove, echoed Rice’s dismay.
“While we all are concerned about the security of our people and our nation, we cannot abandon our values,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, the leader of Democrats in the senate, demanded that Trump rescind the measure.
“This executive order is mean-spirited and un-American, and it was implemented in an incompetent way,” he said.
President Trump defended the measure in a series of tweets as well as a formal statement on Sunday.
“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW,” he said in a tweet. “Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!”
Republican House Rep. Peter King said he supported the executive order but denied any involvement in putting it together.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had told Fox News on Saturday that he, King and others had helped Trump craft the measure.
The action taken by president Trump caused confusion at airports across the United States over the weekend, as hundreds of incoming refugees, immigrants and green card holders were detained for allegedly violating the newly adopted measure. Thousands protested at John F. Kennedy airport in Queens on Saturday in an effort to secure the release of approximately 50 individuals held in custody there.
At 9 p.m. on Saturday night, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay temporarily prohibiting the deportation of all individuals detained at American airports. As of Monday, some detainees had been released and admitted while others remained in custody.
Isma Chaudhry, the president of the Long Island Islamic Center, said her “community feels very vulnerable.”
“People don’t know what’s going to come next,” she added. “They’re afraid to visit their families and to go back to countries where they came from.”
She described the executive order as “grossly lacking in compassion.”
“Do not put walls between communities,” she said, addressing Trump. “That’s not my America and I don’t think that’s the America anybody has envisioned.”
She said her Westbury mosque has “beefed up security” in response to the executive order. The safety measures were further reinforced, she said, after news of a shooting at a mosque in Quebec, Canada on Sunday night that killed six people and wounded eight others.
She said the Nassau County police have been “extremely helpful” and Nassau county legislators have contacted her with words of support.
“I’m proud to be a resident of Nassau County at this time,” she said.
Chaudhry and other religious leaders will discuss community responses at a public discussion on Wednesday organized by ReachOut America, a progressive advocacy group.
“It is important to make our own community and our own foundations strong,” she said.
