WASHINGTON – Today, House Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement on Donald Trump’s executive order that bans citizens of 12 countries, including Haiti, from traveling to the United States, and places partial restrictions on citizens of seven more nations:

“We condemn Donald Trump’s bigoted travel ban in the strongest possible terms. Let’s be clear: the President of the United States has committed an unambiguously xenophobic attack on the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom will die as a direct consequence of his cruelty. These are children, women, and men who are fleeing political turmoil and war, who are trying to survive famine and natural catastrophes. Haitians and so many others are drowning, and Donald Trump just ripped a life preserver from their desperate arms and tied weights around their ankles,” said the Co-Chairs. 

“But the continuation of their suffering is the point. This is a targeted abuse of hundreds of millions of Black and Brown people at a scale of cruelty even beyond the historically despicable Muslim and African Bans, and it’s undergirded by nothing but baseless accusations and one man’s insatiable hate. The American people know that. No matter what sick justifications he gives or sadistic lies he spins, we see this vile, unlawful act for what is. Just as we see him for who he is. 

“We call on all people of conscience to recognize this cruelty for what it is, and join us in standing with the innocent people who Donald Trump sought to hurt through this executive order. In the face of such brutal inhumanity, they need more than our support, and they need more than our love. Only our unwavering and absolute commitment to fight against this depraved act in the courts, in our communities, and in the halls of Congress is sufficient at this moment.”

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