WASHINGTON — Members of the state congressional delegation will meet with leaders of New Jersey’s Muslim community next week in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.
The meeting was arranged by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th Dist.) and will take place in a House office building in Washington.
“Regardless of where you stand on the merits of President Trump’s executive orders on immigration, it is clear that New Jersey constituents are significantly impacted by the implications of this decision,” Watson Coleman wrote to her colleagues on Wednesday. “These concerns have been acutely expressed within the Muslim community statewide.”
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Watson Coleman held a conference call with representatives of several Muslim organizations in advance of her invitation. They included the New Brunswick Islamic Center, the Islamic Circle of Mercer County, and Muslim organizations at Princeton and Rutgers universities.
Almost every member of the state’s congressional delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, criticized Trump’s order to temporarily ban refugees and block anyone coming from visitors from seven Muslim countries — Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
During his campaign, Trump called for a ban on admitting Muslims.
Though Trump cited the 19 terrorists who hijacked four planes on 9/11 in issuing the order, he did not include Saudi Arabia and the other countries where the attackers came from, nor any Muslim countries where Trump’s companies do business.
A Gallup poll released Thursday said a majority of U.S. adults opposed Trump’s orders to block Syrian refugees and visitors from the seven Muslim countries. The ban on Syrian refugees was rejected, 58 percent to 36 percent, while 55 percent opposed cutting off entry from the seven countries, compared with 38 percent who approved.
The poll of 1,018 adults was conducted Jan. 30-31 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Every New Jersey House Republican and Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.) voted in November 2015 to impose a new layer of vetting for refugees from Syria and Iraq. Senate Democrats blocked the bill in their chamber.
Besides the Homeland Security Department’s current 18-to-24 month background checks, the legislation would have required the FBI director, Homeland Security secretary and the director of National Intelligence to sign off.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
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