Cruel Immigration Ban

As children of Holocaust survivors and refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, we strongly oppose the administration’s ban on immigrants.

We urge our congressional leaders to come to their senses and oppose this executive order based on unjustified fear. We already have a very strict screening process in place, and there is overwhelming evidence that it is working. Not a single American citizen has been killed in a terrorist incident by a refugee from any of the seven banned countries. On the contrary, evidence is overwhelming that immigrants are hardworking and make positive contributions to our society while filled with gratitude for the safe haven America provided them.

We urge our elected representatives to speak out and act quickly and decisively to reverse this senseless and cruel ban on immigration. We remind them that we and other voters do remember, especially at the ballot box, how our leaders who represent us behave in critical times such as this.

This issue is beyond partisanship. It is about our common humanity.

Do not let unfounded fears destroy all that we Americans stand for. The legacy of this wonderful country for centuries has been to be a haven for oppressed refugees. The few times in our history when we turned our backs and acted with fear — refusing entrance in the 1930s for Jews fleeing Nazi oppression, and incarcerating innocent Japanese-Americans into detention camps in the early 1940s — we now look back with shame and sorrow.

This is another historic time, a chilling echo of the past. We urge you to act with your humanity and reverse this assault to our morality and national security.