Most significantly, this Executive order may violate our Constitution
and values by banning people based not on security concerns but on the
basis of their religion, and by turning our backs on a decades-long
commitment to welcome those fleeing credible fears of persecution,
fleeing violence and chaos in their home countries. These may be the
consequences of ``America First.''
It is well known but bears repeating that in 1939, a ship called the
St. Louis approached American shores bearing nearly 1,000 mostly Jewish
refugees fleeing the horrors of the Nazi regime and the impending
Holocaust. In one of our Nation's most shameful chapters, the United
States turned away these refugees seeking our shores. One passenger on
board the St. Louis received a telegram from the U.S. Government
instructing him that passengers must ``await their turns on the waiting
list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas before they may be
admissible.'' Most of these refugees were forced to return to Europe,
where they were murdered by the Nazis. This tragic episode from 1939, born of isolationism and, tragically,
anti-Semitism and a mistaken sense that we could isolate ourselves from
the challenges and the violence of the world was also part of a period
when a group whose name was the America First Committee mobilized to
try to prevent our entry into the Second World War. I will say that these are the consequences of ``America First.'' The
United States ultimately is less safe.
Keywords matched
immigration visas refugees