[ad_1]

“Today it might be Muslims, tomorrow it might be somebody else.”

Ajmal Achekzai

Supplied

“I know how it is to come to America and live the American dream and be safe,” said Ajmal Achekzai, a Marine veteran and a refugee from Afghanistan.

Achekzai arrived in the US at the age of five after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. “I understand how it feels to be a refugee,” he said.

“I appreciate what America has done from my family. My mom would have been a widow or I would have been an orphan if it wasn’t for the refugee program,” he said.

“When I heard that people who can’t protect themselves aren’t able to be protected as refugees here, that hit me extremely hard,” he said.

Achekzai said he is staunchly against the immigration ban due to humanitarian and constitutional reasons.

“As a Marine, you’re taught to protect,” he said.

Mansoor Shams

Supplied

Mansoor Shams, a Marine Corps veteran, told BuzzFeed News he believed President Donald Trump's controversial executive order on immigration was “inappropriate,” “unjust,” and “goes against American ideals.”

“I think President Trump, as commander-in-chief, has the right, by default, to protect our nation from any outside threats. But to paint an entire country or a nation, or a people, with a broad brush as if they’re all potential terrorists or bad people is what I take issue with,” said Shams, a Pakistani American veteran who served as a Marine for over four-years.

Shams said he was irked the US had a “huge hand in destabilizing Iraq,” and now Washington has “turned our shoulders” on the men and women of Iraq, especially those that helped and risked their lives for Americans, referring to translators and other Iraqis who worked with the US government during the conflict.

“I was sort of taken aback,” Shams said of the ban.

“Of course this ban will do nothing for national security. It serves to cater to his base. There are no facts that back up these claims,” Shams said.

“We talk all the time about bullying in this country and how bad it is, and that's exactly what the president is doing [to Muslims],” Shams said.

“Today it might be Muslims, tomorrow it might be somebody else.”

---

View Entire List ›

[ad_2]