ACLU Immigration Ban Lawsuit Leads To Millions of Dollars In Donations And Thousands Of New Members
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has received millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of new members following their protest of President Trump’s immigration ban.
The executive order calls for a ban of at least 90 days, preventing the entrance to the United States of nationals from certain predominantly Muslim countries. The ban affects citizens of Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq. Citizens of those countries who hold dual citizenship are also barred from entry to the U.S.
The ACLU is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to defend individual rights which are granted by the Constitution.
The ACLU has vowed to continue fighting on behalf of those facing deportation or who are being barred from entering the country, leading to a wave of donations. According to Yahoo News, the ACLU has received more than $10 million in donations since Saturday and more than 150,000 new members.
The ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero, told Yahoo News that the membership growth and donations were “unprecedented.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this. People are fired up and want to be engaged. What we’ve seen is an unprecedented public reaction to the challenges of the Trump administration.”
ACLU’s national director, Faiz Shakir, added that the ACLU is determined to win this legal battle. “I hope Trump enjoys losing,” said Shakir.
“He’s going to lose so much we’re going to get sick and tired of his losing.”
The lawsuit filed by the ACLU led to a federal judge in Brooklyn banning parts of Trump’s executive order. The temporary injunction“will block the deportation of all people stranded in U.S. airports under President Trump’s new Muslim ban,” according to the ACLU’s website.
The ACLU’s lawsuit challenged the ban under which many lawful residents of the United States who had valid visas to enter the country were detained at U.S. airports and threatened with deportation. The ACLU claims that the detainment of those with permanent residence and valid visas “violates…Fifth Amendment procedural and substantive due process rights.”
Many celebrities and public figures have sided with the ACLU, encouraging people to donate to the organization. Several have promised to match donations made to the ACLU, including the singer Sia.
1) 22 people tweeted me their @ACLU donations! Sending in my matching contribution. Solidarity @pacohope @backcheckswing @nickraushenbush pic.twitter.com/H2h5OgfJKn
— Arram Sabeti (@arram) January 29, 2017
Triple your donation. Send your receipts to me too. I'll match to $25k. Thanks @sacca for taking the lead! https://t.co/B6TMltL2OB
— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) January 29, 2017
The ACLU is expected to continue to challenge the legality of Trump’s immigration ban, which also suspends the United States’ refugee system for 120 days.
Telegraph reports that Trump believes his “extreme vetting” system will “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the U.S.”
The United States’ Syrian refugee program accepted more than 12,000 Syrians into the United States last year. Trump’s ban will prevent Syrian refugees from seeking asylum in the United States for several months. Preference will be given to Christian refugees over Muslim refugees from the Middle East, and reduce the number of refugees allowed to enter the country from 110,000 to 50,000.
While executive orders are legally binding, they can be subject to legal review and overturned should they be found to be illegal, a battle which the ACLU is determined to fight.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, banned the discrimination of immigrants based on their national origin.
[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
