People Are Posting Pictures Of Their Grandparents On Social Media To Protest Trump’s Muslim Ban

via Twitter

After failing at his first two attempts to ban people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S., a watered-down version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban took effect last Thursday. The ban prevents people from Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days unless they have a “bona fide” relationship in the U.S. These relationships include the parents, siblings, sons- or daughters-in-law, and spouses of U.S. residents.

The Muslim ban does not allow admittance for people outside of a “close familial relationship,” excluding the grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law of U.S. residents. The belief that grandparents are not a close familial relationship is absurd. So to protest the travel ban, people with family in the banned countries have been posting photos of their grandparents under the hashtag #GrandparentsNotTerrorists.

Not only is the travel ban cruel because it separates people from their families and discriminates against people based on religion, it will do absolutely nothing to save lives. Since 9/11, not a single American has died from a terror attack perpetrated by someone from the banned countries. The vast majority of terror attacks on U.S. soil are carried out by American citizens, most of which are white.

Several civil rights groups believe the policy is discriminatory. “We think it’s repugnant to our values that they might be treated differently because of where they are from or how they choose to pray,” Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, told The New York Times. But the Trump administration argues that the policy was created in the interest of national security. “As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm,” Trump said. The Supreme Court is expected to hold hearings about the ban later this year.