The United States is a nation of compromise. Although political discourse often becomes heated and downright ugly at times, at the end of the day, we all can acknowledge that other Americans have different opinions, and they have the right to hold those opinions. Under normal circumstances, lawmakers work together to find common ground and fix a problem together with bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the past couple days have not been normal circumstances.

Trump’s first nine days in office have been everything we (or at least I) expected them to be; an unprecedented flurry of far-right executive orders, and an absolute disregard for Constitutional law. I could sit here and write 20 articles on Trump’s wild unprofessionalism, his conflicts of interests, and his complete denial of facts, but this article is honing in on one policy: Trump’s Muslim ban.

Despite our best hopes, Trump signed his refugee ban into law via executive order on Friday, January 27. This policy is not only illegal, but morally reprehensible and a downright attack on American values. The policy aims to restrict immigration from 7 Muslim-majority nations, suggesting that people immigrating from these countries are hoping to conduct terrorist attacks on US soil. Considering Trump did not consult with any Federal Department before signing this executive order, it is already having profound consequences. The hardest hit have been dealt to individuals visiting the US on a work visa or who have permanent, legal residence. Because of the law, they now have to face a heart-wrenching choice: do they leave the US to visit their families, or do stay separated for an indefinite amount of time?

Now, for the party of “family values,” this should outrage many Republicans. However, Republican criticism of the order has been unacceptability weak. Only a handful of Republican Congressmen have released tepid criticisms of the order, and this comes after they denounced the potential order during the campaign. Mike Pence has also failed to criticize the order, but tweeted that “calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional,” during Trump’s campaign, before he was picked as VP.

This just should not be a partisan issue, and Republicans who have not criticized this order need to realize that no one deserves to be singled out because of their faith.

Irony is in no short supply concerning the ban because it actually does nothing to stop terrorism. To start, all 21 of the 9/11 hijackers came from countries not included in the ban. Also, Trump cited last year’s San Bernardino shooting as his primary motivation behind the law, but failed to mention that the shooting would not have been prevented if the ban was in place at the time. The wife was a Pakistani national, and the husband was born here.

This is also the case with the Orlando shooting, as the shooter was born in the United States. The fact is that the majority of terrorist attacks in the United States are perpetrated by United States nationals. In fact, cases of terrorism involving immigrants and refugees are ridiculously rare, so much so that out of 3.5 million refugees accepted over the past 15 years, only 20 have become terrorists. Even further, the chance of being killed by one of these terrorists is 1 in 3.6 billion. These odds are so low that you are more likely to get struck by lightning. Twice. These 20 terrorists are not proper justification to let thousands of innocent human beings die.

Interestingly, Trump’s Muslim ban appears to be missing a few countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Egypt. What do these countries have in common? Trump has multiple high profile business investments in these countries, including golf courses, towers, and business investments. Trump has roughly criticized these countries in the past, yet failed to include them in his ban.

It would be nice, yet still terrifying, to think that Trump is just misinformed on how to stop terrorists. His national security advisers may have it wrong, or his actions have good intentions but just won’t work. The reality is that this ban is targeting people because of their faith, and Donald Trump fully knows this. He is appealing to some of his most racist supporters, who are celebrating this ban. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke is an ardent supporter of the ban, (no surprise there) tweeting “Greatest. Year. Ever.”

This is not a time for Americans to sit down and give in.

These attacks from Donald Trump on American values will only succeed if we stay silent and become apathetic. Through all of Trump’s terrible actions, the resolve of the American people will carry us through these next 4 years. The outcry against his policies have already been enormous, and many people are realizing how terrible of a leader Trump is and will be. This needs to be only the beginning of the protests against Trump, and we need to fight back and resist against these racist, un-American policies that Trump so feverishly champions.