To the Editor:
On Jan. 27, –President Donald Trump scrawled his name to an executive order titled “Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorists Entry to the United States.” This document temporarily bans refugees from seven countries from entering the United States and blocks indefinitely Syrian refugees escaping slaughter. Ironically, also on Jan. 27, he issued a statement noting International Holocaust Remembrance Day. History reminds us that in 1939 a ship carrying 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany was turned back by our country and the refugees were sent to their deaths in concentration camps.
Is the president deathly afraid of children and their parents who are desperately trying to keep them safe? In refusing these refugees, we are repeating the horrible decision our country made in 1939. The Syrian refugees are vetted and documented more carefully than any other refugees. The intensive vetting process takes nearly two years, yet many refugees have been in refugee camps for nearly five years.
This executive order, besides continuing the desperation of the refugee experience, will further inflame the Muslim countries, burden our allies who have welcomed thousands, and exhibit our true lack of morality and compassion. We cannot call ourselves Christian or pro-life when we turn our back to the desperation we know is happening and do not attempt to change it. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
I urge our Catholic leaders and the faithful to take action against this order of the president. Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.” That should be all we need to remember as we vigorously resist the immoral direction our country is heading.
Evalee Mickey
North Liberty
