February 03, 2020 10:04 AM UTC

Neguse Slams Trump For Restricting Immigration From Eritrea

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• by: Colorado Pols

AP and the Denver Post reported Friday, and we wanted to make sure it got a mention:

The Trump administration announced Friday that it is curbing legal immigration from six additional countries that officials said did not meet security standards, as part of an election-year push to further restrict immigration.

Officials said immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new restrictions in obtaining certain visas to come to the United States. But it is not a total travel ban, unlike President Donald Trump’s earlier effort that generated outrage around the world for unfairly targeting Muslims…

“America offered my family freedom and the opportunity to live the American dream,” said Neguse, of Lafayette. “The president’s ban does not align with American values or promises our country offers to migrants and refugees. I’m committed to making sure America welcomes all faith and religions.”

Historically independent, Eritrea endured a long and bloody conflict with neighboring Ethiopia that resulted in a large refugee diaspora and over 20,000 Eritreans migrating to the U.S. by 2000. Rep. Joe Neguse’s parents came to the U.S. during that conflict, and Neguse’s story as the son of immigrants from a war-torn nation is major plank in his biography.

A total of about 12,000 people from the six affected countries are estimated to be impacted by the new travel restrictions:

The new ban will “result in more suffering for untold numbers of families who will be prevented from reuniting,” said Mariko Hirose, litigation director for the International Refugee Assistance Project, in response to the announcement. “Many of our clients, who are in extremely vulnerable situations, will once again be harmed by this order, among them Eritrean children trying to reunite with their family members in the United States.”

Like so much else in the last three years, it’s likely that the swiftest remedy for these new travel restrictions will be the 2020 elections–especially after the new conservative Supreme Court backed the Trump administration over the first round of travel bans. Between now and then, we expect to see Rep. Neguse making the case for Trump’s ouster on this action and his personal story.