Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient Tammy Duckworth – Illinois’s junior senator – is speaking out against President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
She says it amounts to a ban on Muslims and that it actually puts American troops overseas in harm’s way – by giving terrorist groups like ISIS a major recruitment tool.
"We've just made our American men and women in uniform more of a target and also Americans are traveling all over the world who are either just being tourists on a well-earned vacation or working overseas,” she said. "If you're going to target Americans, the place to do it is in the overseas more so than the United States which has given the enemy more of a reason to recruit people to come and hurt Americans."
A federal appeals court is expected to hear oral arguments regarding the executive order Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Duckworth was one of 50 senators who voted against President Trump's nominee for education secretary Tuesday morning.
Duckworth said she felt DeVos performed “very poorly” during her confirmation hearings, especially when DeVos was asked about laws concerning access for education for all students, regardless of disability.
"We're not talking about just students with physical disabilities or learning disabilities, it's all disabilities and she knew nothing about it,” she said. “And this is a cornerstone of civil rights for children with disabilities so that they can go to school, whether they have ADHD or autism or perhaps are wheelchair bound, they have the right to go to school and she knew nothing about this law."
The confirmation was the first time a president's nominee for a cabinet position required a tie-breaking vote from the Vice President.
