Coalition of Muslim Civil Rights and Immigrant Justice Groups: Trump Administration’s “Pausing” of Immigration Applications on the Basis of National Origin is Unlawful and Discriminatory
Racist “Travel Ban” Targeting Muslim- and Black-Majority Countries Should Be Rescinded, Not Expanded
December 3, 2025 – No Muslim Ban Ever, a coalition of organizations representing Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities and allies, is deeply alarmed by the Trump administration’s announcement yesterday that it has paused, effective immediately, all benefits requests and applications to USCIS, including green card and U.S. citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from the 19 countries on its travel ban list.
We are also concerned by reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for an expansion of the travel ban list from 19 to between 30 and 32 countries, which are likely to be African nations based on earlier reporting. On Monday, she posted on X that she recommended a ban on immigrants from "every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies."
President Trump intensified this hateful rhetoric yesterday when he unleashed a racist tirade about all immigrants from Somalia, saying: "They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you." He went on to call Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the first Black Muslim woman to serve in Congress, "garbage" and said "we're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country." ICE is reportedly preparing a major operation against Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.
For journalists covering the above news, we offer the following quotes for publication and experts available for interviews. These individuals include attorneys litigating cases challenging the Trump administration's immigration policies, policy experts engaging members of Congress, and community leaders in direct touch with impacted individuals. We're also happy to provide more information or analysis on these developments.
Aarti Kohli, Asian Law Caucus Executive Director: "The tragic shooting of two National Guard members is weighing heavily on all of us, and our hearts go out to their families and fellow service members. But collective punishment is morally wrong and legally prohibited. The Trump administration is freezing immigration applications and threatening retroactive reviews based solely on nationality--with no regard for due process and no legal justification. This isn't security policy—it's blatant nationality-based discrimination that violates both immigration law and constitutional protections."
Subha Varadarajan, National Immigration Law Center Senior Strategist, Campaigns: “This new policy is illegal, discriminatory, and reprehensible and does nothing to keep our country safe. Instead, the Trump Administration is exploiting a tragedy to sow chaos in our immigration system and advance its assault on immigrant communities in pursuit of authoritarian power. As a country, we must collectively confront this gross abuse of power in order to protect our democracy and the rights of all.”
Sumayyah Waheed, Muslim Advocates Senior Policy Counsel: “The Trump Administration’s push to expand its already sweeping, racist travel and entry ban is the latest escalation of its chaotic anti-immigrant agenda—one fueled by mass detention, relentless deportations, and the militarization of our neighborhoods. Elected leaders at the local, state and federal levels should reject it and instead provide resources to immigrant communities, stop funding militarized ICE crackdowns, and denounce hate masquerading as immigration policy.”
Yasmine Taeb, MPower Change Action Fund Legislative and Political Director: "Rather than promoting unity in the aftermath of a national tragedy, the Trump administration is exploiting it to advance a racist, unconscionable agenda by spreading hateful and divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric. This is simply another attempt by this administration to scapegoat the most vulnerable in our communities by demonizing immigrants and refugees to accelerate a white supremacist policy agenda. We urge members of Congress to condemn the administration's rhetoric and its targeting of our immigrant and refugee communities."
Zahra Billoo, CAIR San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director: "In the Bay Area, we are already hearing from families who are terrified about what this order means for their futures. Many fled war, persecution, and genocide believing they had found safety—only to see their lives thrown back into limbo by a policy driven by politics, not principle.
"Freezing asylum and re-scrutinizing approved cases sends a chilling message: no amount of compliance will ever be enough if you come from a Muslim-majority or African nation. These measures are not about safety; they are about scapegoating entire communities for political gain and keeping their lives in permanent uncertainty.
"We will not stand by while families are destabilized and lives are put at risk. CAIR is committed to challenging these discriminatory policies, and we urge Congress—especially those representing diverse districts like ours—to investigate this order, rein in USCIS and ICE, and move quickly on measures like the No Ban Act so that no administration can weaponize immigration policy against entire nationalities ever again."
For interviews with the above experts or immigrants impacted by this new policy, please reach out to media@nomuslimbanever.com.