Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda introduced a resolution on Monday, Jan. 30, calling on the state Assembly to condemn President Trump's immigration actions.
The resolution calls on the state's congressional delegation to oppose the president's executive directive, and asks Gov. Cuomo to ban state resources from being used to enforce the order.
"I call on my colleagues to speak out as one body over this transgression of American justice and humanitarian concern," said Sepulveda, whose district is home to a large number of Muslims. "This is not who we are as a nation, not who we are as a people.
Trump on Friday, Jan. 27 blocked indefinitely refugees fleeing the slaughter in Syria and temporarily suspended immigration from six other predominantly Muslim countries as part of what he called a vetting plan to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists." He also set up a religious test for refugees from Muslim nation, ordering that Christians and others from minority religions take priority over Muslims for entry into the United States.
The order, which went into immediate effect, caused chaos at airports around the nation and overseas as students, visitors and green-card-holding legal permanent U.S. residents from the seven Middle Eastern countries named in the directive, and refugees from around the world were stopped, held and some sent back overseas.
Sepulveda noted that the President's action affects up to 320 State University of New York and 120 City University of New York students and an unknown number of students at New York's private colleges.
"This order is nonsensical," Sepulveda added, noting that "foreigners from the seven listed nations - Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - killed exactly zero Americans in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 and the end of 2015, according to the Cato Institute."
"I am calling on everyone to call the White House to voice their opposition, and to contact their elected representatives in Washington to urge them to oppose this horrible, shameful action," said Sepulveda. "This cannot and will not stand."
Assemblyman Sepulveda represents the 87th Assembly District covering Parkchester, Castle Hill, West Farms, Van Nest and Stratton Park.
