We are community organizers, ministers, rabbis, imams, lawyers, and teachers. We are mothers, fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, and friends. We were born in Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Mexico, the United States and other countries. We are all in America for different reasons, and we are all here for the same reasons.

We were born here. We came to get an education. We were recruited to work in American industries. We came because our homes and our towns were burned to the ground. We fled threats against our lives and the lives of our families, because we cooperated with the American government or spoke out against corrupt leaders or have the wrong political or religious beliefs.

Some of us may speak differently, dress differently, or pray differently than you do – just as French Canadian and Irish immigrants before us did – but we want the same things.

We are here because we are trying to live the best lives that we can. Because America offers the promise of safety, of freedom, of hope, for ourselves and for our families. This is the American dream.

President Trump’s executive orders are everything the American dream is not. They are meant to drive fear into people’s hearts. They are meant to divide our communities and turn neighbor against neighbor. They value the religious beliefs of some over others. And they ignore the lessons of history, which teach us that when we make policy based on fear, not fact, we always look back in shame.

President Trump’s executive orders have already caused chaos and confusion. They have left families divided by oceans. They have left our Muslim brothers and sisters feeling alienated and unsafe. And they have called into question our president’s commitment to the Constitution.

Today, we join together to call on Maine’s elected leaders to do everything in their power to put a stop to these unconstitutional policies. The very fabric of our nation is at stake.

Signed,

The following piece originally appeared on wcsh6.com as part of their feature, "Two Maines." 

by Alison Beyea
Executive Director, ACLU of Maine

On Saturday, President Trump signed an executive order suspending all refugee resettlement for 120 days and indefinitely suspending the resettlement of refugees from Syria. He also ordered a ban on nationals of seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days.

No matter what you call it, banning citizens of certain countries from entering the country amounts to religious and ethnic discrimination. This policy is unconstitutional, and it will destroy lives.

That is why, early Saturday morning, the ACLU joined other groups in filing a lawsuit on behalf of people who have already been harmed by this policy. Multiple courts have already responded with emergency blocks on the policy, until our case can be fully heard in court.

One of our clients, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, worked as a contractor for the United States government from 2003 to 2010. Brandon Friedman, a platoon leader during the invasion of Iraq who used Mr. Darweesh as an interpreter, credited him with spending years “keeping U.S. soldiers alive in combat in Iraq.”

The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was traveling to the United States to join his wife and 7-year-old son, who are lawful permanent residents living in Houston. He has already been separated from them for three years.

Under Trump’s order, both men were detained at JFK airport and would not have been admitted back into the United States.

President Trump’s plan to keep Muslims out goes against everything this country claims to stand for – the promise of safety and liberty, freedom from religious and ethnic discrimination, and fair leaders who respect the Constitution.

Trump’s ban sends a message to American Muslims that they are not fully part of American society, by barring their family members and friends from coming here to visit them. And it jeopardizes U.S. businesses, investors and universities that depend on people throughout the Muslim world who come here to collaborate and contribute.

The Muslim ban is also reminiscent of tragic mistakes in our nation’s past. History shows that when our policies are driven by fear and distrust of other cultures, we will come to regret them. This was true when we forced thousands of Japanese-Americans into internment camps within our borders. And it was true when we turned away Jewish refugees fleeing the German occupation for fear that they themselves were Nazis (one of those German refugees denied a visa to come to the U.S. was Anne Frank).

The world is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Syrian refugees are fleeing a civil war that has already claimed 400,000 lives. They will very likely die if they don’t find safe haven. Yet the richest, most powerful country in the world is turning them away.

President Trump has waged a war on American values, and it is up to all of us to stop him before he does more irreparable harm to human lives and to the fabric of our country. Join us to fight this ban every step of the way.