BOSTON (AP) - Oxfam America is condemning President Donald Trump’s order to temporarily suspend the nation’s refugee program and indefinitely bar Syrians.
The Boston-based global relief organization says the actions are harmful and discriminatory and will deny safe refuge to thousands of people who need urgent help. It calls for Trump to rescind the order he signed Friday.
Trump has ordered a 4-month suspension of refugee admissions and would ultimately cut admissions by more than half. The order also temporarily halts immigration from some Muslim-majority countries.
Oxfam President Raymond Offenheiser says Trump is “slamming the door on innocent people in their hour of need” and breaking with four decades of bipartisan U.S. policy and more than 200 years of American tradition.
The organization says the nation’s refugee resettlement program already requires rigorous screening.
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