WHEREAS, The United States was founded as a refuge for those escaping religious and political persecution; and

WHEREAS, Wave after wave of immigrants seeking a better life have enriched our nations culture, increased our productivity and innovation, and bolstered our economy; and

WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on January 27, 2017, that desecrates our American values and panders to fears and nativist instincts that have resulted in some of our nations most shameful acts; and

WHEREAS, The executive order bans individuals from the predominately Muslim countries of Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days, prevents all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, and indefinitely suspends the entry of refugees from Syria; and

WHEREAS, The executive order titled Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States ignores the fact that those being denied entry are themselves victims of terrorism and are fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war; and

WHEREAS, The executive order is an affront to religious freedom a principle so cherished by our nations founding fathers that it was included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The executive order was executed in a haphazard manner without having been fully vetted by the very departments charged with protecting our national security, such as the federal Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of State, and the United States Department of Defense; and

WHEREAS, As an immediate result of the executive order, individuals in possession of current visas have already been detained or turned around at airports across the country, resulting in chaos, confusion, deep anxiety, and hardship; and

WHEREAS, Under this executive order, an estimated 134 million people are now temporarily barred from entering or reentering the United States, in addition to hundreds of thousands of current United States visa holders, including dual nationals who were born in one of the impacted countries but who also have citizenship in another unlisted country; and

WHEREAS, The executive order is against our national interests as it exacerbates the United States anti-Muslim reputation, providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations while alienating the more than 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States; and

WHEREAS, While President Trump has falsely stated there is no refugee-vetting system in place, refugees are subjected to the most stringent vetting system of any traveler seeking entry into to the United States a system that can take up to two years or longer to complete; and

WHEREAS, While the executive order references the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as why his executive order is necessary, the 19 terrorists who carried out the attacks were from countries not listed in the ban Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates; and

WHEREAS, Over fifty years ago, the federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin, in order to eliminate prejudice and bias from the immigration process and provide all countries with equal access to the quotas; and

WHEREAS, The federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 explicitly limits presidential authority by stating that no person could be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the persons race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence, and the only exceptions are those expressly granted by the United States Congress; and

WHEREAS, The executive order seeks to resurrect discriminatory immigration policies based on national origin and, therefore, is in direct violation of this long-standing federal law; and

WHEREAS, The history of the United States includes shameful actions beginning in the late nineteenth century, including exclusionary laws targeted at the Chinese, Japanese, and all Asians in the so-called Asiatic Barred Zone, and the national-origins system, which aimed to exclude most Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans from entry into the United States; and

WHEREAS, There is no darker stain on the moral character of our nations refugee history than the refusal to accept hundreds of German Jews who, in 1939, sought to escape the Third Reich; and

WHEREAS, 937 mostly German Jews boarded the transatlantic liner St. Louis at Hamburg, Germany, but the ship was refused permission to dock in Cuba and then in the United States; and

WHEREAS, The St. Louis returned to Europe where 254 of its passengers were murdered during the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, President Trumps signing of his executive order on Holocaust Remembrance Day is an insult to the six million Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis and displays an immoral callousness toward the welfare of the children, women, and men fleeing a brutal civil war; and

WHEREAS, The day after the executive order was issued, a class action lawsuit was filed and a federal district court in New York issued an emergency stay, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States; and

WHEREAS, This court decision by Judge Ann M. Donnelly states, There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017, executive order; and

WHEREAS, Federal courts throughout the nation have also issued emergency stays, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That the Senate condemns this executive order as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion, and urges the President of the United States to immediately rescind the executive order; and be it further

Resolved, That the Senate urges the federal Department of Homeland Security to comply with the federal court orders as quickly as feasible and immediately permit detained individuals to have timely access to legal counsel; and be it further

Resolved, That the Senate commends the hundreds of attorneys across the nation who volunteer their time and services to ensure the due process rights and equal protection of these refugees and legal permanent residents, and the thousands who have peacefully protested to uphold our American values; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

WHEREAS, The United States was founded as a refuge for those escaping religious and political persecution; and

WHEREAS, Wave after wave of immigrants seeking a better life have enriched our nations culture, increased our productivity and innovation, and bolstered our economy; and

WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on January 27, 2017, that desecrates our American values and panders to fears and nativist instincts that have resulted in some of our nations most shameful acts; and

WHEREAS, The executive order bans individuals from the predominately Muslim countries of Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days, prevents all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, and indefinitely suspends the entry of refugees from Syria; and

WHEREAS, The executive order titled Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States ignores the fact that those being denied entry are themselves victims of terrorism and are fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war; and

WHEREAS, The executive order is an affront to religious freedom a principle so cherished by our nations founding fathers that it was included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The executive order was executed in a haphazard manner without having been fully vetted by the very departments charged with protecting our national security, such as the federal Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of State, and the United States Department of Defense; and

WHEREAS, As an immediate result of the executive order, individuals in possession of current visas have already been detained or turned around at airports across the country, resulting in chaos, confusion, deep anxiety, and hardship; and

WHEREAS, Under this executive order, an estimated 134 million people are now temporarily barred from entering or reentering the United States, in addition to hundreds of thousands of current United States visa holders, including dual nationals who were born in one of the impacted countries but who also have citizenship in another unlisted country; and

WHEREAS, The executive order is against our national interests as it exacerbates the United States anti-Muslim reputation, providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations while alienating the more than 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States; and

WHEREAS, While President Trump has falsely stated there is no refugee-vetting system in place, refugees are subjected to the most stringent vetting system of any traveler seeking entry into to the United States a system that can take up to two years or longer to complete; and

WHEREAS, While the executive order references the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as why his executive order is necessary, the 19 terrorists who carried out the attacks were from countries not listed in the ban Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates; and

WHEREAS, Over fifty years ago, the federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin, in order to eliminate prejudice and bias from the immigration process and provide all countries with equal access to the quotas; and

WHEREAS, The federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 explicitly limits presidential authority by stating that no person could be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the persons race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence, and the only exceptions are those expressly granted by the United States Congress; and

WHEREAS, The executive order seeks to resurrect discriminatory immigration policies based on national origin and, therefore, is in direct violation of this long-standing federal law; and

WHEREAS, The history of the United States includes shameful actions beginning in the late nineteenth century, including exclusionary laws targeted at the Chinese, Japanese, and all Asians in the so-called Asiatic Barred Zone, and the national-origins system, which aimed to exclude most Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans from entry into the United States; and

WHEREAS, There is no darker stain on the moral character of our nations refugee history than the refusal to accept hundreds of German Jews who, in 1939, sought to escape the Third Reich; and

WHEREAS, 937 mostly German Jews boarded the transatlantic liner St. Louis at Hamburg, Germany, but the ship was refused permission to dock in Cuba and then in the United States; and

WHEREAS, The St. Louis returned to Europe where 254 of its passengers were murdered during the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, President Trumps signing of his executive order on Holocaust Remembrance Day is an insult to the six million Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis and displays an immoral callousness toward the welfare of the children, women, and men fleeing a brutal civil war; and

WHEREAS, The day after the executive order was issued, a class action lawsuit was filed and a federal district court in New York issued an emergency stay, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States; and

WHEREAS, This court decision by Judge Ann M. Donnelly states, There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017, executive order; and

WHEREAS, Federal courts throughout the nation have also issued emergency stays, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That the Senate condemns this executive order as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion, and urges the President of the United States to immediately rescind the executive order; and be it further

Resolved, That the Senate urges the federal Department of Homeland Security to comply with the federal court orders as quickly as feasible and immediately permit detained individuals to have timely access to legal counsel; and be it further

Resolved, That the Senate commends the hundreds of attorneys across the nation who volunteer their time and services to ensure the due process rights and equal protection of these refugees and legal permanent residents, and the thousands who have peacefully protested to uphold our American values; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

 THIRD READING 

Bill No: SR 16

Author: De León (D)

Introduced: 1/30/17

Vote: Majority

SUBJECT: Immigration

SOURCE: Author

DIGEST:

This resolution 1) makes numerous findings regarding President Donald Trump’s Executive Order that bans individuals from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days, prevents all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, and indefinitely suspends the entry of refugees from Syria; 2) publicly condemns the Executive Order as an affront to religious freedom and as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion; 3) documents the shameful history of the United States in turning away immigrants and refugees through exclusionary laws and actions; 4) urges the President to immediately rescind the Executive Order; 5) urges the Department of Homeland Security to comply with the federal court orders as quickly as feasible and immediately permit detained individuals to have timely access to legal counsel; 6) commends the hundreds of attorneys across the nation who volunteer their time and services to ensure the due process rights and equal protection of these refugees and legal permanent residents; and 7) commends the thousands who have peacefully protested to uphold our American values.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law: 

1. Provides, under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that a person shall not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. (U.S. Const., 5th Amend.)
2. Holds that once an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent. (Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001).)
3. Prohibits the federal government from returning to their home countries people whose life or freedom would be threatened because of the alien’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.  (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1231(b)(3).)
4. Provides for the protection of people who have fled persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. (UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dec. 10, 1948, 217A(III), Art. 14.)
5. Protects all asylum seekers by prohibiting the federal government from returning to their home countries people who have fled persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1101(a)(42)(A).)
6. Provides, under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. (U.S. Const., 1st Amend.)
7. Provides that no person can be “discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.” (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1152 (a)(1)(A).)

This resolution makes the following legislative findings:

1. The United States was founded as a refuge for those escaping religious and political persecution. Wave after wave of immigrants seeking a better life have enriched our nation’s culture, increased our productivity and innovation, and bolstered our economy.
2. President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order on January 27, 2017, that desecrates our American values and panders to fears and nativist instincts that have resulted in some of our nation’s most shameful acts. President Trump’s signing his Executive Order on Holocaust Remembrance Day is an insult to the 6,000,000 Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis and displays an immoral callousness toward the welfare of the children, women, and men fleeing a brutal civil war.
3. The Executive Order bans individuals from the predominately Muslim countries of Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days, prevents all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, and indefinitely suspends the entry of refugees from Syria.
4. The Executive Order titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” ignores the fact that those being denied entry are themselves victims of terrorism and are fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war.
5. The Executive Order is an affront to religious freedom — a principle so cherished by our nation’s founding fathers it was included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
6. The Executive Order was executed in a haphazard manner without having been fully vetted by the very departments charged with protecting our national security such as the federal Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of State, and the United States Department of Defense.
7. As an immediate result of the Executive Order, individuals in possession of current visas have already been detained or turned around at airports across the country resulting in chaos, confusion, deep anxiety, and hardship.
8. Under this Executive Order, an estimated 134 million people are now temporarily barred from entering or re-entering the United States, in addition to hundreds of thousands of current United States visa holders, including dual nationals who were born in one of the impacted countries but who also have citizenship in another unlisted country.
9. The Executive Order is against our national interests as it exacerbates the United States’ anti-Muslim reputation, providing a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations while alienating the more than 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States.
10. While President Trump has falsely stated there is no refugee-vetting system in place, refugees are subjected to the most stringent vetting system of any traveler seeking entry into to the United States — a system that can take up to two years or longer to complete.
11. While President Trump references the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as why his Executive Order is necessary, the 19 terrorists who carried out the attacks were from countries not listed in the ban — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates.
12. Over fifty years ago, the federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin, in order to eliminate prejudice and bias from the immigration process and provide all countries with equal access to the quotas.
13. The federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 explicitly limits presidential authority by stating that no person could be “discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence,” and the only exceptions are those expressly granted by the United States Congress.
14. The Executive Order seeks to resurrect discriminatory immigration policies based on the national origin and, therefore, is in direct violation of this long-standing federal law.
15. The history of the United States includes shameful actions beginning in the late nineteenth century, including exclusionary laws targeted at the Chinese, Japanese, and all Asians in the so-called Asiatic Barred Zone, and the “national-origins system,” which aimed to exclude most Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans from entry into the United States.
16. There is no darker stain on the moral character of our nation’s refugee history than the refusal to accept hundreds of German Jews who, in 1939, sought to escape the Third Reich. 937 mostly German Jews boarded the transatlantic liner St. Louis at Hamburg, Germany, but the ship was refused permission to dock in Cuba and then the United States. The St. Louis returned to Europe where 254 of its passengers were murdered during the Holocaust.
17. The day after the Executive Order was issued, a class action lawsuit was filed and a federal district court in New York issued an emergency stay, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States.
18. This court decision by Judge Ann M. Donnelly states, “There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017, Executive Order.”
19. Federal courts throughout the nation have also issued emergency stays, which will stop federal officials from deporting individuals with approved refugee applications, holders of valid visas, and people from the seven impacted countries who have secured authorization to enter the United States.

This resolution resolves that the Senate:

1. Condemns this Executive Order as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion, and urges the President to immediately rescind the Executive Order.
2. Urges the federal Department of Homeland Security to comply with the federal court orders as quickly as feasible and immediately permit detained individuals to have timely access to legal counsel.
3. Commends the hundreds of attorneys across the nation who volunteer their time and services to ensure the due process rights and equal protection of these refugees and legal permanent residents, and the thousands who have peacefully protested to uphold our American values.

Background

On January 27, 2017, Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” This Executive Order is arguably in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that provides that no person can be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence. Moreover, reports of actions by federal immigration agents, under the auspices of complying with the Executive Order, arguably violate federal and international refugee law.

Through his Executive Order the President purports to: ban individuals from the predominantly Muslim countries of Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days; prevent all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days; and indefinitely suspend the entry of refugees from Syria. Those targeted by the Executive Order can themselves be victims of terrorism and are fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war.

As an immediate result of the Executive Order, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents detained individuals in possession of current visas or refugee status and from the targeted seven predominately Muslim countries upon arrival in the United States. Those still abroad were prohibited from returning to the United States, resulting in chaos, confusion, deep anxiety, and hardship. Volunteer attorneys immediately mobilized to assist the individuals detained at the airports. Thousands of peaceful protesters mobilized at several airports throughout the United States to show their support for the immigrants and their opposition to the Executive Order. Lawsuits were immediately filed in an effort to free the targeted immigrants.

A lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of New York that resulted in federal district court of the Eastern District of New York Judge Ann Donnelly issuing an emergency stay and finding that “petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioner and others similarly situated violates their rights to Due Process and Equal Protection granted by the United States Constitution.” The emergency stay stopped federal officials from deporting individuals with refugee status or valid visas. According to the New York Times, this legal case began with two Iraqis detained at Kennedy Airport. (Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide, New York Times, Michael D. Shear, Nicholas Kulish, Alan Feuer (Jan. 28, 2017).) One of the Iraqis “had served alongside Americans in Iraq for a decade.” (Id.) Federal district court judges in Washington State, Virginia, and Massachusetts also issued rulings that were favorable to immigrants.

This resolution: publicly condemns the Executive Order as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion; urges the President to immediately rescind the Executive Order; and urges the Department of Homeland Security to comply with the federal court orders providing relief from the Executive Orders as quickly as feasible and immediately permit detained individuals to have timely access to legal counsel. This resolution also commends the hundreds of attorneys across the nation who volunteer their time and services to ensure the due process rights and equal protection of these refugees and legal permanent residents, as well as the thousands who have peacefully protested to uphold our American values.

Comments

1. Stated need for the resolution. The author writes the following:

Our nation’s core values are under assault – the very values cherished by our Founding Fathers. President Trump’s sweeping Executive Order aimed at keeping Muslims out of the United States is an affront to our constitution. It panders to fears and nativist instincts that have resulted in some of our country’s most shameful acts. It is supposed to make us safer. It does the opposite. It fulfills a campaign promise. But it betrays the founding principle of our nation as a refuge for those escaping religious and political persecution. It is unlawful and desecrates our belief in religious freedom.

The Executive Order places a temporary ban on individuals from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States. Refugees from Syria are banned for an indefinite period of time. There has never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil by immigrants from the seven banned countries. The four countries where the 9/11 terrorists came from were not listed in the ban. Instead, the Executive Order bans victims of terrorism fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war. The Executive Order resurrects discriminatory immigration policies based on national origin in direct violation of the long-standing Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. And while the President has falsely claimed there is no vetting process for refugees, the vetting process is rigorous and can take up to 2 years or more.

The Executive Order has resulted in chaos, confusion, deep anxiety, and hardship. People with current visas have been detained or turned around at airports across the country. SR 16 condemns this Executive Order as a discriminatory overreach that illegally targets immigrants based on their national origin and religion, and urges the President to immediately rescind the Executive Order.

1. The Executive Order is arguably unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution prevents Congress from establishing “a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” (U.S. Const., 1st Amend.) The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly held that the “clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.” (Larson v. Valente, (1982) 456 U.S. 228, 244.) The President’s Executive Order arguably discriminates on the basis of religion in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. The Executive Order bans individuals from seven countries from entering the United States for 90 days. The only countries on the list are predominately Muslim countries. While the Executive Order does not on its face call out Muslims as excluded from entry into the United States, the fact that the excluded countries are all majority Muslim, coupled together with the President’s public comments on Christian Broadcast News that he intends to give priority to Christian refugees from Syria, could show that the President has an intent to disfavor Muslims in violation of the Establishment Clause. (The Executive Order calls for the prioritization of refugee claims, after the 120-day refugee ban ends, based on religious-based persecution “provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.”) The First Amendment extends beyond facial discrimination. (Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, (1993) 508 U.S. 520, 534.)
2. The Executive Order arguably violates federal law. This Executive Order arguably violates the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965’s prohibition against the discrimination of a person “in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.” (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1152 (a)(1)(A).). The federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was enacted to ban all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence. The President’s Executive Order discriminates in the issuance of an immigrant visa due to a person’s nationality, and is therefore in direct violation of this federal statute. In his Executive Order, the President asserts that he has the power to suspend the entry of any class of aliens he finds are detrimental to the interest of the United States due to his powers under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(f), a statute enacted by Congress in 1952. (Enacted in 1952, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(f) states: “Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.) However, Congress subsequently restricted the President’s power with the 1965 enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In the 1965 enactment, Congress unambiguously directed that no nationality-based discrimination shall occur.
3. Reported actions at airports throughout the United States by federal agents, under the auspices of complying with the Executive Order, arguably violate federal and international law. Regardless of the President’s Executive Order, once on U.S. soil, federal and international law prohibit the deportation of non-citizens who can establish they will face torture or persecution if returned home. International law provides for the protection of people who have fled persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. (UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dec. 10, 1948, 217A(III), Art. 14.) Moreover, existing federal law protects all asylum seekers by prohibiting the federal government from returning to their home countries people who have fled persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1101(a)(42)(A).) Moreover, once the immigrants arrived in the United States they were entitled to due process under the law. “[O]nce an alien enters the country, the legal circumstance changes, for the Due Process Clause applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.” (Zadvydas v. Davis, (2001) 533 U.S. 678, 693.) Even if the Executive Orders were valid, the federal agents at the airports would be in violation of federal and international law if they were returning immigrants to their country of origin after those immigrants have asserted their fear of returning due to cognizable asylum claims.

1. The Executive Order panders to fears and nativist instincts that have resulted in some of our nation’s most shameful acts. The history of the United States includes shameful actions, including exclusionary laws targeted at the Chinese, Japanese, and all Asians in the so-called Asiatic Barred Zone. The “national-origins system” aimed to exclude most Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans from entry into the United States. In 1939, 937 mostly German Jewish refugees were refused entry into the United States when the ship they sailed on was refused permission to dock. The refugees were forced to return to Europe where 254 of the passengers were subsequently murdered during the Holocaust. Instead of opening our arms to the refugees during their attempt to escape the Third Reich, we, as a nation, were complicit in refugee suffering. This resolution highlights that the President’s Executive Order was signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Executive Order places a temporary ban on individuals from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States and an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. The Executive Order suggests that these discriminatory policies are aimed at keeping the country safe from terrorists. However, there has never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil by immigrants from the seven banned countries. In fact, the four countries where the 9/11 terrorists came from were not listed in the ban. The Executive Order ignores the fact that those being denied entry are themselves victims of terrorism and are fleeing the savagery, death, and destruction of the Syrian civil war.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 1/30/17)

None received

OPPOSITION: (Verified 1/30/17)

None received

Prepared by: Margie Estrada Caniglia / JUD. / (916) 651-4113

1/30/17 13:09:36

**** END ****