[crowd chanting]
-President Trump defending his controversial travel ban,
even as attorneys general from 16 states slam it
as "unconstitutional, un-American, and unlawful."
Protestors gathering in cities across the United States
from New York to Boston, Los Angeles, and beyond.
-And it's not a Muslim ban, but we are totally prepared
to work it out very nicely.
You see it at the airports. You see it all over.
It's working out very nicely.
[crowd shouting]
[cheers and applause]
-I see it as illegal, unconstitutional,
and un-American.
-The Supreme Court has sided
with the administration in this case.
They have upheld the travel ban here.
-I think we need to add
another line in there. -Yeah.
-To help people understand that there's this waiver issue
that we're addressing in this paragraph.
-Right. -As soon as the Muslim
ban went into effect, thousands of people
just received blanket denials of waivers
before they even had a chance to make the case
for why they're eligible for a waiver.
-In my heart, I felt
that we will be together in America soon.
I'm a US citizen. We were married.
What could go wrong?
-Ismail Alghazali is one of our clients
in a class-action lawsuit that we filed immediately
after the Supreme Court upheld the Muslim ban.
-Love is not a person that will come and knock on your door.
Love is gonna --
It's like a strong wind that blows everything.
So that's how I felt with me and my wife.
I was like, "I want to get married, Mom," you know?
I'm here because of my family.
As a Muslim-American citizen, do I really have to go through this
to have my family here?
-He's standing up for thousands of people like him
and demanding that there be a fair and meaningful process
to be able to acquire a waiver.
While we are putting up this fight in the courts,
we also understand that Congress has a role to play,
and that's why, you know,
we're testifying before Congress in support of a bill
that would really rein in this abuse of power.
It was introduced this spring by Senator Coons
and Congresswoman Judy Chu, and the bill would make it clear
that you cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.
You know, this is going to be the first time
that members of Congress hear directly from people
affected by the Muslim ban.
-It's a dual-focus hearing.
It'll be on oversight of the travel ban and its impacts,
as well as the NO BAN Act itself.
So there will be two panels.
The first one is a government panel
with witnesses from State, Homeland Security.
-Then Panel two includes individuals
who have been actually affected,
as well as advocates and a legal analyst.
-Exactly.
-Ismail Alghazali is Yemeni-American,
and his wife is unable to come to the US with their child.
-And the fact pattern here with Ismail and his family
is to focus on family separation.
-Absolutely.
-Because there was such hesitation
and concern about family separation
happening at the border, and I --
most folks I've talked to Delaware are unaware
that there are hundreds and hundreds of families separated,
or there are stranded spouses and children
in other parts of the world who are waiting.
-The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee
on Immigration and Citizenship
and the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation
will come to order for this joint hearing.
Without objection, I will preside over today's hearing.
-A consular officer will automatically consider
that applicant for a waiver based upon the criteria
set forth in the proclamation.
These criteria are issuance of the visa
is in the national interest,
denial of a visa would cause the applicant undue hardship,
and the applicant poses no national security
or public safety threat to the United States.
-The people that come from the countries
that are on this travel ban only make up 8%
of the Muslim population in the world.
So if the intent of the Trump administration,
as my Democrat colleagues contend, is to ban Muslims,
they're doing a pretty darn poor job of it.
-I want to make it clear to everyone that not everyone
in the discriminated class has to be discriminated against
in order for something to be discriminatory.
-If you are from Iran -- And I know a lot of people
who are Iranians, amazing people
who are contributing massively to our country.
I actually -- I adore --
Some of my best friends are Iranian.
It's a great nation.
-Ismail Alghazali is a US citizen who was born in Yemen
and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
-Thanks. Good afternoon, Congress member.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity
to share this with you.
It hurts me so much that it's been now more than a year
since I've seen my family.
Hend, Khaled, Rahf, and I were separated by thousands of miles
because of the Muslim ban.
The interview did not go as we expected.
It didn't even last five minute.
They returned Hend passport
and said her visa has been denied
because of the Muslim ban.
-I think we can all agree
that we don't want to ban babies and grandmothers.
That doesn't make it safer,
and we need a policy that is smarter
and that actually is not doing harm
to our own friends and neighbors.
-I still have hope that we will be together again
as a family here.
Hend will become a nurse.
My son and daughter will go to school
and pursue their own dreams.
I pray that you will find it in your heart
to allow families like mine to be together.
Thanks, Congressman.
-This is the first hearing on the Muslim ban itself,
but it's also only the second time, we believe,
that Congress has had a hearing very clearly focused
on the civil rights challenges
facing the American Muslim community.
We hope it will lay the groundwork
for congressional action on the NO BAN
Act, which is the bill that would overturn the Muslim ban
and prevent future presidents from enacting
a discriminatory ban like this again.
-Often an important idea, a good idea,
even a prophetic idea like this one has to be introduced,
has to be improved, has to have a hearing,
has to have a markup.
And often it won't pass in the first Congress
in which it's introduced.
It may very well get a vote on the floor of the House.
It may very well pass the House in this Congress.
But like many other important pieces of legislation,
it will likely die a slow death here in the Senate.
So until there is a change of heart
or a change of control in the Senate,
I think it's unlikely that this will pass legislatively.
But that doesn't mean it's not still worth hearing
from the actual American families influenced
by this immoral travel
ban.