Trump’s ban on immigration from majority-Muslim countries is somehow at once shocking and unsurprising. And it already has a steep human cost. Banning visas from Iraq and Afghanistan means that interpreters who helped the US military and who helped aid workers from around the world are now being left to look to their own defense. As are their families. As are local activists who tried to stand up for democracy, or progressive policies, in the face of oppression and brutality.
These people fought for a better future for their countries, they enabled groups like Doctors Without Borders to save lives, they supported our soldiers, and now we’re abandoning all of them. Trump is telling them that he’d rather they die than be allowed to flee somewhere safe. If that’s the reward they get for working with nonprofits, with our military, or in favor of democracy, who’s ever going to do that again?
The human costs of the policies that Trump wants to enact are extreme. None are quite so chilling as his openly fascist and Un-American desire to create a registry of certain religious groups.
The ADL has asked American Jews to register as Muslims in Solidarity:
Madeline Albright has herself promised to register as a Muslim:
And I’m going to publicly pledge as a Methodist that I will do the same. We’ve got to remember to consider the human costs of these policies, and stand up for other Americans.
In resistance to the concept, Registration Day 2017 has released the following video imagining the human cost of such a registry:
Muslim Americans are Americans. Period.
And if Donald Trump wants to go after my fellow citizens, he’s going to have to go through me, first. I know I’m not alone in that.
Full Disclosure: Some friends and colleagues of mine made the Registration Day video. I work with some of them from time to time. Sometimes they pay me for various work I do. They’re not paying me to post this here, and I didn’t personally work on this production. I’m posting this and supporting the project because I think it’s good content that people should see, I agree with the message it conveys, and I’m proud of the work my friends have done. I’m not even sure that under the site rules this disclosure is necessary, but in the age of Trump, it’s important for all of us to live the ethics we expect from others, so when in doubt, I’ll disclose. And I hope you will too.
But for now, if you’d like to join their conversation on Facebook, you can find them here.
