Christians, Jews and Muslims joined members of the American Civil Liberties Union and community leaders at the Sparks Christian Fellowship, opposing President Donald Trump's plan to ban refugees from coming from countries that harbor terrorists. Trump is expected to sign an executive on the topic as early as Thursday.
"We're the beacon of freedom," Mike Thornton, ACTIONN Executive Director said. "That's what we are. Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. That's what we're about."
The Northern Nevada International Center has brought 62 refugees to northern Nevada since August, and intends to bring about 100 per year. The refugees come from Afghanistan, Syria, Congo and El Salvador.
"If you think about refugees, in particular, and most immigrants in general, they love America," Carina Black, Executive Director of the Northern Nevada International Center said. "They come here because they love this country."
Roger Edwards is the Chairman of the Washoe County Republican Party. He says it is important for Americans to take care of people, but they should be careful when it comes to handling the refugee issue.
"There's people that have been on a waiting list to the normal processes to get into our country for five or 10 years, from countries that don't support any kind of terrorism," Edwards said. "So you need to step back, a little and say 'Wait a second. Yeah, it's fair to a couple thousand people in North Africa, for instance, but it's also not fair to 20,000 people that are on the regular immigration roles that can't get in."
While Trump has not signed an executive order regarding refugees, he did sign one that calls for the immediate planning of a wall on the U.S./Mexico border. He also took action to block immigrants from countries that harbor terrorists, and wants to begin deporting undocumented immigrants who are already in America.
"It's not that they're attacking us but they are using services and stuff that we provide for our people at a cost to taxpayers, that a lot of times, they're not paying for," Edwards said.
"They're valuable members of our community and I think it's a shame that we are implementing these structures that are terrorizing very large numbers of our community members," Black said.
While there are some differences of opinion when it comes to border security and refugees, the divide is also still very apparent when it comes to a Trump presidency.
"We just don't see engaging in the divisive rhetoric that the president is doing as being helpful and in line with our values," Thornton said.
"I think he's done fine," Edwards said. "I kind of hoped he would do more but considering he's only been in office like, you can almost count it by hours not days, he's done fine."
