The Muslim migration lobby is feeling increasingly “ignored” by 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidates after many have stopped attacking President Trump’s travel ban, as it remains one of his most popular immigration policies to date.
Muslim migration advocates told Politico in interviews that their opposition to Trump’s travel ban — which has effectively ended legal immigration from Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen — is not being voiced in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary.
In the last Democrat primary debate, for example, the constitutional and widely popular travel ban was only spoken about for less than two minutes. This, Muslim migration advocates said, is putting a bad taste in their mouth for the Democrat field of candidates:
“This is an issue that they aren’t taking as seriously as they should be,” said Mohamed Gula, executive director of the Muslim advocacy group Emgage and a former staffer on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Us being about 1 percent of the American population, to be ignored in that way, is definitely kind of putting a chip on our shoulder.” [Emphasis added]
Rabyaah Althaibani, a co-founder of the political consulting group Arab Women’s Voice, added: “It’s disappointing. I’m Yemeni and I don’t know a single Yemeni family that isn’t directly impacted by the Muslim ban.” [Emphasis added]
Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have hardly attacked Trump’s travel ban — mainly because poll after poll has revealed that it remains one of the most popular policies enacted by the White House.
A January 2019 poll conducted by Harvard/Harris found that about 8-in-10 registered U.S. voters said they supported “tough” legal immigration restrictions on terrorist-sponsoring countries, like those implemented through Trump’s travel ban — including 94 percent of Republican voters, 71 percent of Democrats, and 79 percent of swing voters.
Months before, a November 2018 poll conducted by Harvard/Harris Poll found that a plurality of 4-in-9 U.S. registered voters said they specifically supported Trump’s constitutional travel ban. Nearly half of American men said they supported the travel ban, as well as almost 7-in-10 Republicans and more than 4-in-10 swing voters. Less than 30 percent of swing voters said they disapproved of the policy.
Grappling with the travel ban’s popularity has left leftists activists declaring that a “significant” population of Americans have “Islamophobic tendencies,” according to those interviewed by Politico:
“It’s no secret that when you look at the polling, there are significant numbers of Democratic voters and Republican voters who have fairly strong Islamophobic tendencies,” said Waleed Shahid, communications director for the left-wing Justice Democrats and a former aide to Bernie Sanders. “I think the way to deal with that is to have strong leadership on the issue.” [Emphasis added]
A June 2017 poll by Rasmussen Reports, though, noted that the majority of likely American voters did not see the travel ban as being “anti-Muslim” but rather about the national security of the nation even before it was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
For instance, 52 percent of Americans at the time said the travel ban was about keeping terrorists out of the U.S., while only a small minority of 39 percent said the ban was about “blocking” Muslims from entering the country. The poll found that the travel ban was supported by about 5-in-10 U.S. likely voters — including 57 percent of American men, 56 percent of white voters, and 50 percent of swing voters.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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