House passes bill blocking Trump's sweeping refugee, asylum bans

[Nevilledog]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/22/house-passes-bill-blocking-trump-asylum-refugee-ban-378295

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would rescind President Donald Trump's sweeping restrictions on admitting refugees, asylum-seekers and visitors from certain countries into the United States, a mostly party-line vote intended to serve as a rejection of Trump’s campaign-era call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

The measure, which is certain to be rejected in the GOP-controlled Senate, is aimed at blocking actions that Democrats say imposed overbroad, ethnicity-based restrictions that lacked national security justification. Republicans say the measure, which would also sharply limit how the White House may set such restrictions in the future, would tie the president's hands in making those security determinations and jeopardize national security.

The bill's passage on a 233-183 vote was delayed by four months — Democrats initially planned to advance the measure in March but backtracked as the coronavirus pandemic overtook the congressional agenda.

The measure is a response to what they say is Trump's effort to ban Muslims from the country, a policy he embraced during his 2016 presidential campaign. Though he never instituted an outright ban, Trump imposed restrictions on a slew of Muslim-majority countries, describing them as security risks. Democrats said the effort was, in practice, an effort to implement Trump's proposed Muslim ban and cloak it in the pretense of a national security justification.

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[Thomas Hurt]

1. Another one to add to the stack to return to when Joe is in the WH.