“What has happened is irresponsible and unconscionable.” Sen. Klobuchar.
St. Paul, MN – Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) held a press conference Sunday morning to speak out against President Trump’s executive order regarding immigration.
“This order was put out in a way that is terribly confusing. It is possibly, very probably, unconstitutional. It targets country of origin and religion, both of which are both unconstitutional,” Franken said during the press conference. “This is not our country.”
The executive order, issued Friday, is two-fold. It suspends the country’s refugee program for 120 days and bans travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days. The travel ban applies to citizens from Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Somalia. The Trump administration reports the countries were originally identified by the Obama administration in 2015 as posing the greatest risk.
Klobuchar echoed Franken’s remarks on Sunday, calling the executive ordering “irresponsible” and “unconscionable.”
“I believe in thorough vetting and strong national security measures,” Klobuchar said. “But you don’t create chaos while you’re doing it.”
Klobuchar shared the stage with a Somali refugee, Samira Dahir, and her two daughters. They are currently waiting on the arrival of the youngest member of their family, Dahir’s 4-year-old daughter who is currently in Uganda. Klobuchar says their reunion is now up in the air.
As Alpha News reported, protests broke out at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) on Saturday following the executive order. Over the weekend, 109 people of 325,000 travelers were detained, Trump tweeted.
Klobuchar calls the airport detainees a “small slice” of who is going to be affected by this. She says the “hundreds of thousands of green card holders from the countries are the focus here.”
The concern for green card holders has been widespread. A Homeland Security official clarified the issue in a statement to CNN, stating that green card holders will have to go through additional security checks, but “everything else will be normal.”
Watch the full press conference from Sunday here.
