ANAHEIM, Calif. () — The Muslim community is closely monitoring changes in immigration policy underway by the Trump administration.
Amr Shabaik, the legal director of the Council on American Islamic Relations with the Greater LA office (CAIR-LA), said among those on their radar so far was the executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for some. That was temporarily blocked Thursday by a federal judge.
One change already in effect ended a long-standing policy that once blocked immigration arrests in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and places of worship.
“That has caused some concerns in terms of – can we see ICE raids coming to our local mosques and religious centers, religious schools? Things of that nature. Then another one that has been on folks’ radar is the one deemed to be protecting the U.S. from foreign terrorists,” Shabaik said.
The concern being – if the Trump administration doesn’t agree with certain ideological, political or religious beliefs, that individual or group may be classified as a terrorist.
Shabaik said this executive order could be setting up another version of the so-called “Muslim ban” seen just one week into Trump’s first term in office which denied Muslim communities visas and migration.
Civil rights leaders are watching closely to see whether the administration targets demonstrators who have advocated for Palestinians. Several took place on university campuses like UCLA, USC, UCI and Chapman University.
“There is some real concern that they’re going to use some of these executives orders, especially when they were talking about protecting the U.S. from foreign terrorists, to try to intimidate and crack down on student speech and student protest, student advocacy,” Shabaik said. “We know just from our experiences a lot of these students are American citizens and engaging in the First Amendment – protected rights and even if they’re not American citizens the Constitution still applies to them.”
CAIR-LA estimates there are about half a million Muslims in the Southern California region coming from diverse backgrounds. According to the U.S. Religion Census, in 2020, there were an estimated 36,000 Muslims in Orange County and 143,000 Muslims in L.A. County.
CAIR-LA is joining nationwide efforts to inform this community through educational events, online and on social media.
“We want folks to obviously be aware of what’s happening. We don’t want folks to be scared even though that’s what the Trump administration is trying to do. We want folks to be informed of their rights and to know of what’s happening around the country and in their local areas,” Shabaik said.
For more information on CAIR-LA’s upcoming forums you can click here.
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