Trump's "Muslim Ban"
Has Got To Go
The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act will prevent future travel bans such as the Muslim ban.
The bill will strengthen the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, and restore checks and balances by limiting overly broad executive authority to issue future travel bans.
Tell Congress: Pass The NO BAN Act Today!
Trump’s Muslim Ban In Review
The Trump administration is once again set on enshrining its anti-Muslim bigotry and racism into yet another travel ban, similar to the first "Muslim ban." The bigotry within the White House is all the more grotesque considering the role that U.S. interventions and militarism play in creating the conditions from which people are forced to flee.
This xenophobic policy is a direct attack on Muslim and other marginalized communities, neighbors, families, and friends—separating loved ones and reinforcing dangerous Islamophobic and racist stereotypes. It's discrimination, and it's cruel.
As fascist history continues to repeat itself, we must focus on the lessons to be gained from revolutionary history and strategize today's win for all people.
Read on to understand how Trump got away with the Muslim ban last time, how we resisted, and how it's all connected to Palestine.
How The Muslim Ban Is Connected To Palestine
Israel itself has been banning refugees since 1948. Israel was created and is maintained through the ethnic cleansing and ongoing exile of more than 7 million Palestinian refugees who are denied the right to return to their homes and lands — an inalienable right to return inscribed in international law — simply because of their religion and ethnic origin.
Weaponizing Anti-Muslim Bigotry
Anti-Muslim bigotry, often referred to as "Islamophobia", is vital to the propaganda machine that manufactures consent for Israel's crimes, including the ongoing genocide in Palestine. While the world lit up at the now debunked Oct. 7th propaganda, fueled by bigoted stereotypes, many of us have born witness to devastating scenes of Palestinian babies beheaded by Israel such as this anguished father holding up the headless body of his toddler.
On March 26, 2025, a journalist published footage of another horror-struck father holding the severed head of his child, Ahmed, in his hands, stroking his hair as he said goodbye. Legacy media outlets have yet to report on a single Palestinian child beheaded by Israel, perpetuating the dehumanization of Muslims and Arabs.
The war machine needs the world to both view Israel's settler-colonial project as a religious war, and to value Israeli lives above Muslim and Christian Palestinian lives. As Trump seeks to continue this decades-old culture war on "American" soil, the people have woken up to its true purpose: look away from the killings the war machine demands so that the ruling class can profit from death and destruction.
Let's review how Trump has weaponized anti-Muslim bigotry in the past.
Understanding Fascism's Past
The last time Trump swore he would institute a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," he signed the executive order titled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States."
It came to be known as the "Muslim Ban," and was packaged as a public safety initiative. Instead, the ban tore hundreds of families apart, put asylum seekers at risk, and further endangered countless refugees fleeing wars and famine.
Jewish Voice for Peace's 2017 graphic reflects the interconnected struggles from Turtle Island to Palestine; from the US/Mexico border wall to Israel's apartheid wall; and from Israel's ban on Palestinians' right of return to Trump's Muslim ban.
What Was Trump's Muslim Ban Process Last Time?
On January 27, 2017, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed executive order 13769 to institute a 90-day travel ban against seven Muslim majority countries from entering the United States: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
All Syrian refugee resettlement was suspended indefinitely. Included in this initial executive order was a plan to more than halve the number of refugees the U.S. would receive annually from 110,000 to just 50,000.
Trump expanded iterations of the first Muslim ban to include other predominantly Muslim African countries Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria. Eventually, the Supreme Court upheld his third executive order that included North Korea and Venezuela.
Within the first 10 months, the Muslim ban caused a 94% drop in Muslim refugee admissions, rejecting over 40,000 visa applications.
What Was Effective Resistance To The First Muslim Ban?
The people used a diversity of tactics to materially block the effects of the Muslim ban for at least a year, forcing Trump to sign a series of executive orders in response to legal and grassroots pushback. The most effective tactics involved coordinated efforts from lawyers and activists alike.
Within hours of Trump's signing of the first Muslim ban, people of conscience responded by the thousands to their nearby airports. The ban was announced and went into effect as many immigrants were already in-flight.
Most notably, thousands of people shut down the Seattle airport in protest of Customs and Border Protection's detainment of two migrants. With combined legal, diplomatic and public pressure, these people were released.
Let’s review the tactics.
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Lawyers and activists organized to translate legal information for impacted migrants, pressured their city councils to condemn the Muslim ban, and hosted political education events to further expose the so-called "War on Terror."
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The first ban was signed on a Friday and went into effect the very next day. By Sunday, a federal judge ruled in favor of the ACLU's demand to temporarily block Trump's deportation order for those detained in airports. A Syrian family swiftly sued President Trump after being deported upon arrival.
For every attempt Trump made to reinstate his ban via executive order, federal judges continued to approve injunctions to halt the ban. A class action lawsuit has forced ongoing reparations by forcing the U.S. government to wave fees for visa reconsideration for almost 25,000 people impacted.
The Common Thread: No Right To Bans On Stolen Land
The people of the global majority are tired of the U.S. empire destabilizing their countries, bombing their families, and then banning them from seeking refuge here. Palestinians are tired of the Israeli colonial project stealing their land, starving their families, and bombing and burning alive their loved ones.
Enough’s enough.