For Muslims in South Florida, their worst fear was realized on Friday with the signing of President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
“That’s what I am hearing,” said Omar Saleh, attorney for the Council for American Islamic Relations in Florida. “We are really busy and what we’ve been hearing is that their worst fears, what they heard during the campaign, have been realized.”
As for President Trump's claim that his executive order on immigration is not a ban on Muslims entering the United States, "we just don't believe it," Saleh added.
“This is an Islamophobic reaction and it divides the country,” Saleh said. “The point I have been trying to make, if the goal is to protect the United States, then everybody should be vetted.”
CAIR’s national office intends to file a lawsuit challenging the executive order on Monday. No actions or protests have been planned for South Florida as of Saturday night.
Saleh said he was pleased with an outpouring of support from the interfaith community. “Rabbis, priests and even atheists have reached out to me personally.”
U.S. Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch put out a press release Friday evening condemning the executive order.
“In a direct attack on this proudly American value, the President’s executive order on refugees starts a period in which the United States closes its doors to the most vulnerable people,” Deutch was quoted in the press release.
On Saturday, Deutch took to Twitter and blasted the executive order in a stream of tweets.
“Religious tests and refugee bans slam shut that golden door. Extreme vetting just deported decency from America,” Deutch wrote in one tweet.
Deutch, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, also posted photos with his tweets. One was of the body of a child, a refugee, who drowned while fleeing Syria.
“Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” Deutch tweeted with a photo of the Statue of Liberty beside a photo of a stunned, bloody toddler in Aleppo that went viral during the siege on the Syrian city.
In another tweet, he pulled an excerpt from a New York Times article: “They don’t put their children in dinghies on high seas b/c they have a choice. They do it b/c they have no choice.”
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, also a Democrat, used his twitter account to condemn the executive order.
“I am outraged by @RealDonaldTrump’s #MuslimBan. It is illegal & a stain on America. History will judge us for this failure.”
Florida senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio issued no statements and made no comment on their social media accounts. Newly elected Republican Rep. Brian Mast also made no comment.
