ACLU-NJ Stands with NJ’s Muslim and Immigrant Communities In Wake of Appalling Muslim Ban Decision

In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s discriminatory, xenophobic Muslim Ban. The ACLU has challenged all permutations of this policy in court.

The ACLU-NJ will join MPower Change and the Council of American Islamic Relations New Jersey at the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson tonight at 6 p.m. to rally against this supremely wrong decision. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1650979371677778/1669199596522422 At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 28, the ACLU-NJ wand CAIR-NJ will hold a community forum at Masjid Al-Wali at 9 Olsen St. in Edison to discuss the impact of the decision.

The following can be attributed to ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha:

“This is a dark moment in our history. We in New Jersey feel the sting of this decision personally, living in a state where one in five of us was born outside of the United States. To our Muslim brothers and sisters, members of New Jersey’s South Asian and Middle Eastern communities, and all of our state’s immigrants: the ACLU stands with you. We will continue to do everything in our power to support you in demanding the rightful recognition of your dignity and constitutional rights.

“Family separation isn’t a side effect of the Muslim Ban, but the goal. At this administration’s core is an agenda of cruelty inflicted on families who are brown and Black. Our government is turning its back on refugees and forcing families apart, abdicating the responsibility we should feel as a democracy to protect people who are fleeing unimaginable circumstances.

“The ACLU has fought the Muslim Ban since the beginning, and we will continue to fight any hateful, inhumane, reckless policies the government hurls at our communities. The Muslim ban was never about national security, but about anti-Muslim animus.

“This decision shows that now, more than ever, it’s up to us in the states to correct the course of the country, because we can’t rely on our federal government to uphold the values we stand for. In the streets and in the corridors of power, today and every day, we will be there to remind our nation that we won’t stand for hate. We won’t tolerate policies that discriminate based on religion, national origin, identity, or ethnicity, and no person of principle would.

“This administration wants to use its false patriotism to intimidate, separate, and ban people. Let’s show the administration, the Supreme Court, and the country what true unity looks like.

“Justice Sotomayor’s dissent says it plainly: ‘In holding that the First Amendment gives way to an executive policy that a reasonable observer would view as motivated by animus against Muslims, the majority opinion upends this Court’s precedent, repeats tragic mistakes of the past, and denies countless individuals the fundamental right of religious liberty.'”