Susan Rice: Trump’s ‘Counterproductive’ Travel Ban Stigmatizes and Isolates Muslims

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” former National Security Adviser Susan Rice said President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from some Muslim-majority countries is “‘counterproductive.”

Rice said, “There’s no evidence to suggest that by banning Muslims, or banning Muslims from a particular set of six countries, that we would make our lives here in the United States safer. That is, I believe, one of the major reasons why the courts thus far have been very skeptical of the travel ban. Moreover, I think there’s a very real risk that by stigmatizing and isolating Muslims from particular countries, and Muslims in general, that we alienate the very communities here in the United States whose cooperation we most need to detect and prevent these homegrown extremists from being able to carry out the attacks. We need the cooperation of our Muslim communities—the cooperation of all Americans. They need to feel valid and part of this challenge that we face together as a nation. By stigmatizing a subset of ourselves, or a subset even of foreigners, we make that much more difficult. It’s counterproductive.”

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