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SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, met with several Islamic leaders and activists Wednesday in downtown Salt Lake, where he voiced his support of President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily banning nearly all forms of travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
But Chaffetz also criticized the new president's "attitude and approach to the Muslim community."
"I also will be a vocal voice, when people try to pop up with religious negativity, and say I think that's wrong," Chaffetz told reporters.
The congressman met with roughly a dozen Muslim figures in a roundtable discussion at S.K. Hart Management's offices on South Temple, taking pointed questions from them about his opinions of the travel ban. The first half of the meeting was closed to reporters. In an open discusssion afterward, not all were convinced.
"I think the vetting process (in place before Trump's election) is working well," said Aden Batar, director of immigration and refugee resettlement for Catholic Community Services of Utah and a member of the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake. "I think refugees are not the enemy. Muslims coming here are not the enemy. I think we know who the enemies are."
Chaffetz said he didn't view the travel ban as a measure designed to single out Muslims.
"I do believe that we have the necessity as a nation to protect our borders," he told reporters. "I do think it is proper to make sure that new people coming into this country are properly vetted," he said. "But it should not be acceptable to ever target somebody based on their religion. So we've got to find that right balance."
The travel ban prohibits entry into the country for virtually all non-U.S. citizens from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Sudan and Libya for 90 days, after which the list of affected countries may be altered. The order also prohibited any acceptance of refugees from Syria indefinitely and banned intake of refugees from all other countries for 120 days. A federal judge stayed the order and arguments were heard Tuesday as whether it is constitutional after two states sued.
Wednesday's meeting was not the first time Chaffetz has spoken with Muslims in Utah in an effort to quell their concerns.
In December 2015, Chaffetz visited a mosque in West Valley City to reassure some of his Muslim constituents that he would not support then-Republican primary candidate Trump's proposed ban on all Muslim immigration into the United States.
Chaffetz said then that Trump's proposal was "not reasonable," "not moral" and "not something that I could ever support."
Chaffetz's tall task Wednesday was assuring faith leaders that their Muslim religion was not the purpose of the ban.
Dr. Salman Masud, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake, agreed with Batar that the executive order was a solution in search of a problem.
"The policy hasn't been vetted. That is our issue. The policy was so rushed ... and Muslim-Americans are so anxious," Masud told Chaffetz. "There is no crisis. This is, to me, what's been upsetting to everybody. It has to be done in a (more methodical) sequence."
Noor Ul-Hasan, a Muslim activist who has served as a representative of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable for the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake, tacked on a concern about the safety of refugees who may be turned away.
"These people are going back to refugee camps and facing other issues of safety," Ul-Hasan said.
Chaffetz said he could empathize with the refugees, but noted that Trump selected the countries for his travel ban because vetting databases in those areas are "either nonexistent or unreliable."
"I think (some Muslims) feel targeted and I can understand that, but I happen to disagree," Chaffetz said. "And I want to fight back against it and say we are better than that, we are not trying to target people — and should not target people —based on their religion. We just shouldn't do that."
To the extent that Muslims are ever made the sole focus of federal immigration policy, Chaffetz promised to vigorously oppose such a move.
"What I hear is a concern that the government is going to use that as an excuse to spread that out across the world, that it's not just these seven, that the real intention is to suppress Muslims globally," he said. "That is not right and I will fight against that every step of the way."
He also said he disagreed with Trump's recent comments that mistreated Christian minorities in the Middle East would be given future priority for admission as refugees.
"I think that's wrong too," Chaffetz said.
The congressman also criticized Trump's executive order for its abrupt impact on permanent residents of the United States who are from the affected countries, saying "clearly it was rushed and it wasn't rolled out the way it should have been."
Chaffetz is scheduled to host a town hall meeting at Brighton High School, 2220 E. Bengal Boulevard, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.
