N.J. Lawmakers Vote To Condemn Donald Trump's Travel Ban

New Jersey lawmakers voted Monday to condemn President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.

The state Senate voted 21-11 to condemn Trump's temporary travel ban, which critics say is merely a thinly veiled version of a Muslim ban that Trump promoted during his campaign.

The resolution says that the Senate "strongly condemns" the United States Executive Orders, signed by President Trump, that suspend immigration for 90 days from the seven Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

"The United States has long served as a beacon of freedom and hope for international immigrants and refugees in search of better economic opportunity and religious freedom; and the Executive Orders are a dramatic, radical, and extreme assault on immigration and the values of our country," according to the resolution's summary.

The orders also suspend all refugee admissions into the United States for 120 days and indefinitely bar all Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

Trump's executive order limiting the residents of the seven countries to visit the United States was subject to a lot of legal maneuvering over the weekend. A federal judge in Seattle ruled Friday the ban could not be enforced.

On Saturday, the government appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking for that order to be stayed. The Ninth Circuit said no and ordered both sides to submit arguments.

"New Jersey, as one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse states in the nation, indiscriminately values the significant cultural, social, and economic contributions of immigrants and refugees from all nations and religious beliefs to the State’s history and prosperity," according to the resolution.

Photo by Simone Wilson