Center protests Trump executive order blocking refugee and other legal entries to the US

January 30, 2017

On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugee admissions for at least four months and banning entry into the United States for nationals of seven predominantly Muslim countries.  It is widely reported that this order was written and signed with little or no consultation among many important executive officials and with minimal, if any, logistical planning.  It has already spawned great confusion and great hardship for people with valid visas (including “green card” holders) who were en route to the United States, in some cases to be reunited with close family members, many of whom have been detained and forced to face additional scrutiny and interrogation.   Many legal actions challenging the order on constitutional and other grounds have already been filed and more will surely follow.  Federal courts in New York and Boston have temporarily enjoined the order as major spontaneous public demonstrations in opposition are taking place throughout the country.  This executive order comes on the heels of two others issued earlier this week that seek to render interior and border enforcement more harsh and undermine due process and substantive protections in our immigration system that have been respected for more than a century.

The Center for Human Rights and International Justice of Boston College continues to stand in solidarity with refugee and migrant communities of all faiths.  We are particularly mindful of the impact that the executive order may have on our Boston College community and its students, faculty, staff and their families.  We are committed to humane, open, and just immigration and refugee policies that are consistent with the foundational commitments of the US and international legal systems.  Such policies are consistent with the best traditions of the United States as an open society, as a nation of immigrants, and, in James Madison’s words, as an “asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion.”  We invite all within the Boston College community to join us in protesting these orders and in standing in solidarity with all who are negatively impacted by them.