RNA - Maha Hilal, the Washington-based executive director of National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, made the remarks while discussing a new poll about the American public’s view of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that halted all refugee admissions for four months, banned Syrian refugees indefinitely and barred visitors and immigrants from Iran, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering America for 90 days.
The new Republican president said the measure was aimed at keeping what he called “radical Islamic terrorists” out of the US.
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, however, found that only 31 percent of Americans agree with Trump that the ban would make them safer.
This is while, 26 percent said it made them feel "less safe" and 33 percent said it would not make any difference.
Hilal said the ban amounted to a collective punishment for people who pose no security threat to the US.
“They are punishing the people that have nothing to do with whatever violence that is being committed,” she told Press TV, adding the Muslims are being punished for “the actions of a few.”
Hilal argued that not only Trump’s ban was not “smart,” it did not make Americans safer either.
“Throughout the course of the war on terror, the United States government has implemented a number of policies that, at face value, seem to suggest that we are fighting the threat of terrorism,” she explained.
“What they really are doing is, you know, holding Muslims collectively responsible and implementing policies that are overly broad,” Hilal added.
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