Democrats Friday slammed President Donald Trump's executive order on refugee vetting, charging that it amounted to a Muslim registry.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York took to Twitter:
On Facebook, California Sen. Kamala Harris ripped Trump's order in light of International Holocaust Remembrance Day:
One of the two orders Trump signed at the Pentagon imposes an indefinite ban on those coming from Syria and halts the nation's overall refugee program for 120 days.
The directive also would suspend visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 30 days.
The other order President Trump signed expands and brings greater resources to the nation's armed forces.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the refugee action "goes against the fundamental nature of freedom of religion in our country.
"It's a foundation that we don't discriminate on the basis of religion," he told Erin Burnett on CNN, later saying the order was "basically … a Muslim registration operation."
Merkley added that the action would help the Islamic State's recruiting efforts.
"What this does do is it feeds right into the ISIS message to recruit terrorists, which is that America is conducting a war on Islam," he told Burnett.
"We've had this before. It didn't work — and, in fact, it caused a lot of hatred towards the United States and feeds into ISIS' rhetoric.
"That makes us less safe rather than more safe."
Other liberal groups also bashed Trump's move on Twitter:
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