Justice

A San Bernardino Widow Has a Message for Trump

January 31st 2017

A widow of a San Bernardino shooting victim has penned a moving Facebook post about President Donald Trump's immigration executive order. The post's author, Renee Wetzel, lost her husband Michael in the December 2015 attack carried out by radicalized Islamic terrorists.

Renee Wetzel FB postFacebook/Renee Wetzel - facebook.com

"As the widow of someone who was murdered by terrorists, I can understand that sometimes it is easy to give into your fears and to want to blame someone or something for what is happening," she wrote. "However, regardless of your political leanings, Trump closing our borders to certain countries is a basic human rights issue."

Her post had been shared over 15,000 times by Tuesday afternoon, with users applauding her in the comments.

commentsFacebook/Renee Wetzel - facebook.com

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer cited the massacre while justifying the administration's actions in a Monday appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

The couple behind the San Bernardino attack did not come from any of the seven predominantly Muslim countries included in the executive order, as the Huffington Post noted on Monday.

Wetzel highlighted Christian scripture's admonition instruction to show mercy to those in need.

Last year, Pope Francis cited the same biblical passage (Matthew 25) to condemn “the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions," the Catholic Herald reports.

"Banning entire groups of people whose only crime is where they were born is not the right answer," Wetzel wrote. "This is against everything our country stands for. Not all Muslims are terrorists and we, as a country, should not be lumping them together like they are."

Signed Friday, the executive order places severe restrictions on immigration from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. The order bars Syrian refugees indefinitely amidst the most severe refugee crisis since WWII.

You can read and share Wetzel's full post on Facebook.

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