On Monday, March 6, the Trump administration introduced a new executive order banning immigration from Iran and five other Muslim majority countries.  

While the ban has been altered from the prior version in an effort to avoid another legal challenge by the judicial branch, the legality of the new order remains highly questionable.   For example, the blanket ban on immigration from six Muslim majority countries may still be an unconstitutional "Muslim" ban due to the administration's numerous prior statements about the order's purpose.  It may also be illegal pursuant to a 1965 law that prohibits discrimination in immigration on the basis of nationality.

Beyond these legal concerns, the new ban suffers the same broader issues that we raised in our statement opposing the original executive order.  In that statement we maintained that targeting entire countries is unjust and counterproductive to U.S. interests.  The American Iranian Council is particularly concerned that the executive order doubles down on the perception that America is at war with Islam.