Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a moment to remind everyone that the United States has a “Muslim ban” — but she missed a few key facts.
Laying the blame squarely at the feet of President Donald Trump and the Republicans who don’t stop him, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Daily reminder that we have a **Muslim Ban** in this country made out of the President’s hostility to Muslim people w/ little-to-no supporting evidence, and a Republican Party that tolerates it. There is so much work to do. Repealing the Ban is square 1.”
Daily reminder that we have a **Muslim Ban** in this country made out of the President’s hostility to Muslim people w/ little-to-no supporting evidence, and a Republican Party that tolerates it.
There is so much work to do. Repealing the Ban is square 1.https://t.co/dqrCsedMrt
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 15, 2019
But the travel ban, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last June, doesn’t strictly ban travel from Muslim countries. Of the seven nations on the list, five are majority Muslim: Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Iran and Libya. The others on the list are North Korea (primarily Buddhist/Confucianist) and Venezuela (primarily Roman Catholic). (RELATED: Nearly 40,000 Visa Applications Were Denied In 2018 Thanks To Trump Travel Ban)
Also, there are nearly 50 countries worldwide that are considered “Muslim majority” nations. The travel ban list only includes five of them, which means 90 percent of the countries where Muslims are the majority religion are not affected by the travel ban at all.