WASHINGTON, DC — FWD.us President Todd Schulte issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s extended travel ban

“In 2015, then candidate Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” In the first days of the new administration in 2017, the Trump Administration implemented its first ban on Muslim-majority countries. Like much of this Administration’s immigration agenda, this policy caused mass chaos and confusion upon implementation. People from across the country flooded airports and ports of entry in mass outrage and courts across the country quickly rejected and enjoined the ban. For months, the Administration tweaked the language of the bans in various iterations until finally, it was upheld.

“The American people were promised these bans were only temporary, and not even really bans at all. We were told to ignore then candidate Trump’s own statements and even those once he became president, and believe this was about national security, not politics and division. We of course know that isn’t true, and the President himself has said he stands by his original statement.

“Today, three years after the implementation of what was supposed to be a temporary ban, the Trump Administration has announced it will be expanding the scope of that very ban. Once again security rhetoric is put forward without underlying facts–and in fact the press has reported the administration tied today’s expansion to a three year anniversary of the initial ban, in an effort to make a political statement.

“We need a new immigration system that upholds the best of what our country aspires to be, not xenophobic restrictions based on race and religion and demagoguery designed to divide us.”