They're Banning Muslims Again. What Will You Do About It This Time?
The MAGA regime has declared war on immigrants again. And our response now defines who we are.
"If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity."
— Albert Einstein"You don't fight racism with racism. The best way to fight racism is with solidarity."
— Bobby Seale
Last night, I felt an unsettling sense of déjà vu. Back in early 2017, I was organizing the statewide legal response in Texas against the first Muslim ban as the head of RAICES. I marshalled our offices in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth, sending our lawyers directly into international airports.
We led the fight to free people detained inside terminals, coordinating scores of volunteer attorneys who quickly became a formidable legal army, launching the initial resistance against the MAGA regime. That moment marked the beginning of sustained legal organizing that carried us through family separations, DACA termination, natural disasters, and numerous other human-made crises triggered by the MAGA administration.
Today, it’s happening again, but now the stakes feel even higher.
President Trump has reinstated and expanded his travel ban. Twelve countries are now blocked, mostly Muslim-majority nations including Afghanistan, Iran, and Somalia. Venezuela and Cuba are also included, thrown in perhaps to distract from the obvious discrimination behind this act. We’re told this is about national security. We heard the same story the first time. It wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now.
The government is citing a recent crime committed by an Egyptian immigrant in Colorado to justify these sweeping exclusions. But here’s the catch: Egypt isn’t even on the banned list. It’s a cynical move, designed purely to manufacture fear and reinforce prejudice. We saw the same tactics last time: targeting specific nations, demonizing entire populations based on isolated incidents.
Back then, organizing the response, I saw firsthand what policies like this mean for real people. Families torn apart overnight. Students stranded in airports, unsure if they'd ever reach their universities. Refugees, already survivors of unimaginable horrors, were turned back without mercy, their legal visas suddenly worthless.
We fought hard, filed lawsuits, mobilized hundreds of volunteer attorneys across Texas and beyond. We won important battles, provided immediate relief, and forced the administration to back down on key points. But the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the administration, setting a dangerous precedent. Now, the administration has returned, emboldened, knowing the court likely won’t stop them.
Today’s ban is crueler. It’s broader. It targets nations already devastated by war, poverty, and violence, much of it fueled directly or indirectly by U.S. actions. Our nation’s fingerprints are all over Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran. Now, we’re shutting the door on those fleeing chaos we've helped create.
My clients, brave enough to survive journeys most Americans couldn’t imagine, now face a wall of exclusion. Again. They see clearly what this ban says: that their lives matter less, their dreams are irrelevant, their presence suspect. This isn’t policy. It’s punishment.
We know where this road leads. Deportations without hearings. Charter flights filled with migrants secretly shipped off to distant, unsafe places, Libya was just the latest example. The pattern is clear, and it’s escalating. Quietly, methodically, people are disappearing from our country. This ban accelerates that disappearance.
But despair isn’t an option. It never has been. I've seen those airports and courtrooms. I’ve looked into the eyes of desperate families. I know the power we hold when we refuse to accept injustice quietly. The resistance against the first Muslim ban showed America at its best: spontaneous, compassionate, unyielding.
We must do it again. We have no other choice. This is not just about the twelve countries listed. This is about us, about who we are willing to become. If we allow this cruelty to stand unchallenged, it becomes who we are.
So, I’m calling on you. Lawyers, students, activists, neighbors, anyone who believes America must remain a place of refuge and justice. The administration has declared war on immigrants. We must answer clearly, loudly, and together.
This ban demands our response. Are you ready to fight again?
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