Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday morning that “the courts are going to determine” whether President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from certain countries from entering the United States has “gone too far.”
“I think it’s a good idea to tighten the vetting process,” McConnell said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“But also then it’s important to remember that some of our best sources in the war against radical Islamic terrorism are Muslims, both in this country and overseas,” he added. “And we have had some difficulty in the past getting interpreters, as you mentioned in the earlier segment, who are helpful to us, treated properly.”
“And yet right now they’re being detained, so do you support this or do you not support this?” Martha Raddatz asked.
“It’s hopefully going to be decided in the courts as to whether or not this has gone too far,” McConnell said. “I don’t want to criticize them for improving vetting. I think we need to be careful. We don’t have religious tests in this country.”
McConnell said he is “opposed” to the use of a religious test in the vetting process.
“The courts are going to determine whether this is too broad,” he said.
On Saturday night, a federal judge in New York issued an emergency order temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to Trump’s travel ban.
