Florida Democrats Rip Trump Travel Ban as 'Un-American,' 'Xenophobic'

TALLAHASSEE—Florida Democratic leaders ripped President Donald Trump's new travel ban as "xenophobic" and "discriminatory" on Friday.

On a virtual press conference, lawmakers tied to some of the 19 nations newly restricted from visiting the United States argued Trump's ban is an "un-American" attempt to exclude non-citizens from visiting the country, based out of a fear of foreigners and not attempts to protect the country from terrorism, as the White House claims.

"This travel ban is rooted not in evidence, but in fear," said Rep. Anna Eskamani, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Iran before she was born.

She called back to Trump's first travel ban in 2017, noting that this year's resuscitated, stronger version evokes a "familiar and deeply painful" feeling for many immigrants.

Rep. Marie Woodson, born and raised in Haiti before she came to the U.S. at 21, claimed the ban "erects walls of division based on fear."

Other speakers, including Puerto Rican Rep. Johanna Lopez and DNC member Samuel Vilchez Santiago—who immigrated from Venezuela—similarly bashed the travel restrictions as "morally unjust" and "deeply un-American."

Their comments came two days after Trump revitalized his 2017 ban on predominantly Muslim nations and expanded it to fully restrict entry of nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will be partially restricted once the ban takes effect June 9. It exempts permanent residents, visa holders, certain visa categories, and individuals helpful to the nation's "critical interest."

Trump, who was already considering reupping his travel ban, chose to approve it sooner following the antisemitic terror attack in Boulder over the weekend. An Egyptian national (though Egypt is not part of the ban) used Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower on demonstrators calling for Hamas to release the hostages taken nearly two years ago.

He injured eight, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.

The new travel ban, which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on June 9, expands Trump's first ban passed in 2017. That policy saw a slew of court challenges, though the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the third version of the ban restricting entry (in varying degrees) from seven different nations: Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Venezuela, CNN reported.

Biden repealed it in 2021.