• Press Release

Amnesty International Response to DHS Report on Trump Travel Ban

February 25, 2017

In response to reports that the Homeland Security Department's intelligence arm has found that citizenship of the seven Muslim-majority countries in the proposed travel ban is an "unlikely indicator" of terrorism threats to the United States, Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA’s Director, Security With Human Rights, said:

“If it is the case that even DHS’s own intelligence analysts can find no justification for banning citizens of these seven countries from America, it is surely time for President Trump to ditch this discriminatory and repellant policy once and for all.”

“The Trump administration’s attempt to cloak a blatantly racist policy in respectabilitythrough an appeal to national security concerns, has been well and truly exposed by organizations like Amnesty International, by the appeal court judges and now, it seems, by their own intelligence analysts.”

“It is clearer than ever that the travel ban is based on bigotry, not on security. The Trump Administration cannot justifiably move forward with this failed policy. If they attempt to do so, Congress must step in.”