State Senator
Saud Anwar
Deputy President Pro Tempore
Working For You
- Representing
- East Hartford,
- Ellington,
- East Windsor,
- South Windsor
HARTFORD – Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) joined U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and community members in Hartford for a community discussion regarding the travel ban put in place by President Trump in 2017. This ban is widely considered to disproportionately discriminate against countries with predominantly Muslim populations.
Sen. Anwar and Sen. Murphy were joined by Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and representatives from groups including the Connecticut Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association, the YWCA, the Connecticut World Affairs Council and the Islamic Association of Central Connecticut. They were also joined by community leaders from surrounding mosques and religious organizations and numerous members of the public. Sen. Murphy said he will use feedback from today’s discussion to guide future federal legislation.
“This policy, in the last several years, has heavily disrupted many American citizens’ lives, and it is something we should not be willing to accept,” said Sen. Anwar. “It is designed to further divide us. Religious and racial discrimination should not be accepted by anyone. I am thankful to Sen. Murphy and grateful to everyone from the local community for coming together to discuss this issue and find ways to engage with and respond to it.”
Sen. Murphy described the ban in question as harming the United States in several ways, including damaging the national economy and adding to discrimination against members of a religious minority. Individuals on Saturday compared its impact to the 1940s internment policy used against Japanese nationals during World War II.
On Friday, January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order banning foreign nationals from seven countries, all of them predominantly Muslim, from visiting the country, additionally barring refugees from entering. Several court cases barred the ban from moving forward, but in 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a later version that barred travel from six predominantly Muslim countries in addition to others. Most recently, in late January, President Trump expanded the ban to six additional countries, several of those countries’ populations being majority Muslim African.