Like many in Arizona’s Third Congressional District, I am the proud daughter of immigrant parents who came to the United States seeking a better life. My parents fled a murderous, theocratic regime in Iran during the 1979 revolution, and this country welcomed them and gave us the opportunity at the American Dream.
To this day, my immigrant dad is still the most patriotic American I know.
Then, in late January 2017, President Donald Trump signed one of the most extreme executive orders of his first term—a policy to ban travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, including my family’s home country of Iran.
Families from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were all banned from U.S. travel, and the order also suspended the resettlement of all Syrian refugees.
When this ban went into effect, I was 24, a graduate student in international security studies. I had recently worked at a refugee camp in Jordan where Syrians who had fled Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown were waiting patiently.
Under this new proposed ban, the United States would no longer accept them.
My 87-year-old grandmother was hoping her sister in Iran could come visit her, but she died before that was possible.
Thousands of families in the United States were impacted by the discriminatory ban.
In his second term, Trump has doubled down on the cruelty and xenophobia of his first administration. Now, the White House is considering travel bans on as many as 43 nations.
This round includes Afghanistan—where many of our allies that aided U.S. soldiers are still seeking asylum, or waiting to be killed by the Taliban—to St. Lucia, a small, peaceful, Caribbean island. It’s clear that Trump’s concerns aren’t about U.S. national security; they are about making it harder for folks who don’t look or think like him to immigrate freely to America, and seek the same dreams my parents did.
This is not a surprise to me or my family. When Trump was running for reelection, he pledged to “bring back the travel ban.”
I think a lot of Americans—including many of my colleagues—laugh off much of what Trump says as outlandish. But as someone who has experienced the direct effects of his policies, I always take him seriously.
This ban is about more than xenophobia. It would have real-world effects on our economy, our national security, and America’s position on the world stage.
International travel, trade, and tourism are huge drivers of the U.S. economy, which is already facing significant pressure from actions taken by the Trump administration, like flip-flops on tariffs.
Restricting travel from over 40 nations—many of which are our partners in trade and innovation—will disrupt supply chains, deter foreign investments, discourage U.S. employers from hiring foreign workers we desperately need, and strain diplomatic relationships on which our economic growth relies.
Not to mention, history has shown us that these kinds of blanket restrictions don’t garner respect, they alienate allies and fuel adversarial narratives, driving vulnerable populations in already unstable parts of the world toward extremism.
An American retreat to isolationist policies, spotlit by the constant coverage President Trump’s actions garner, is already prompting a turn away from the U.S. and our democratic values toward our adversaries, like Russia and China. From Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine to his dismantling of USAID, he is remaking American foreign policy into something weak, reactionary, and cruel.
In Arizona’s Third Congressional District, over 64 languages are spoken—a reflection of the incredible diversity that strengthens our country. Immigrants are an integral part of our culture, our economy, and our shared future.
That’s why I led over 30 of my colleagues on a letter directly to the president, demanding he reverse this harmful policy before it can hurt our economy, our perception as the beacon of democracy, and immigrant families, like mine.
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