Harris, Maryland Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and two other black female 2020 presidential hopefuls—Arizona congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren—have been strongly critical of Trump’s refugee executive order that barred most new arrivals from a dozen nations, including South Africa.
During a May meeting with Virginia tech and religious leaders, Harris echoed that sentiment, calling the travel ban a “morality test” and “ultimately counterproductive.”
In response to the Fourth Circuit ruling, Sinema tweeted, “I’m committed to defending our basic Constitutional principles.”
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, she called South Africa the “ideal case” for the Fourth Circuit’s decision to rule against the Trump administration.
Sinema voted for the ban, writing in a Senate floor speech that it was necessary “because the people in South Africa know that my son will be able to get a good education if I can’t.”
Warren said the court’s ruling “is an affront to the very idea of what it means to be an American.”
A source close to Sinema told the Washington Examiner that the congresswoman “has been both articulate and outspoken when it comes to critiquing this order. She hopes the Supreme Court will choose not to overrule the court of appeals.”
“Kyrsten believes what should have been the focus of the debate in Congress was the immigration status of the people traveling to the United States,” the source said.
The source added that most in South Africa “would be on American soil if they were in fact foreigners.”