As protests continue against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the arrival of visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries, some local lawmakers are taking proactive steps to protect against what they believe could be his next course of action.
California’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit state and local government officials from assisting in the creation of a Muslim registry. The night before, the City Council in Spokane, Washington, unanimously approved a similar bill preventing city employees from cooperating with a registry based on religious preference.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to temporarily halt the arrival of Muslims in the U.S. as a means of securing the country against future terrorist attacks. While not as thorough as he initially stated, it was a proposal he in part achieved with the signing of an executive order Friday suspending the arrival of refugees for 120 days and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen for three months.
While the Trump administration has disputed that the order constitutes a Muslim ban, it has already been subject to multiple legal challenges accusing it of being unconstitutional.
Many protesting the order believe a registry of Muslims could be next. While on the campaign trail, Trump said of the proposal: “I would certainly implement that.”
When asked again in December if he had changed his mind, Trump replied, “You know my plans all along, and I’ve been proven to be right.”
Demonstrators yell slogans during anti-Donald Trump travel ban protests outside Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Jan. 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Charles Mostoller
The California Religious Freedom Act is one of the pieces of local legislation aiming to preemptively halt Trump’s plan. And it was advanced at a hearing Tuesday by a vote of 6-0, with just one Republican senator abstaining.
“It will really quell the anxiety that’s going on in the community,” said Yannina Cassilas, Council On American-Islamic Relations legislative and government affairs coordinator, and co-sponsor of the bill.
In Spokane, Vdcasino a large crowd descended on the City Council chambers Monday evening to urge council members to vote in favor of its own ordinance, according to local publication The Spokesman-Review. Cheers then erupted in the chamber when it was passed by a 7-0 vote.
“We have many refugees, and people of different faiths, who live in our community, and they are scared,” City Council President Ben Stuckart said.
They are not the only such resistive actions taking place across the country. Last month, Senate Democrats filed a bill seeking to block the executive branch from registering people based on religion, race, gender, age, national origin or nationality.
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