Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) appeared Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss President Trump's executive order that bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States.
The order also places a four-month suspension on the country's broader refugee program and forbids refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa from coming to the U.S.
"Would you call it a Muslim ban?" co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Ellison.
"It's absolutely a Muslim ban," Ellison replied. "And more seriously it's a religiously based ban, which means they can pick on Muslims today, but who are they going to pick on tomorrow?"
Brzezinski pointed out that the order did not ban all Muslims. The executive action covers seven Muslim-majority countries, none of which is among the most populous, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, or Egypt.
"Wait a minute. They said they could add countries any time they want, and we have to start with what Donald Trump said originally," Ellison said. "He said he wanted a Muslim ban. Then he sent it to some lawyers and some folks to try to language it up so it could pass muster, but the intent is very clear: it is a Muslim ban."
"He was asked would it exclude other people, and he said it would not exclude people from other religions," Ellison continued. "It would exclude Muslims, though. This is a Muslim ban, and we should focus on that because that's new."
"Congressman, there were over forty Muslim-majority countries not on that list," Scarborough interjected, adding that the seven selected were not listed on the order, but came from a list from 2015 and 2016 under the Obama administration.
Ellison stuck to labeling the order a Muslim ban, stating, "How can we say this is not a Muslim ban when the president said he wanted a Muslim ban?"
"Reince Priebus said we could add more Muslim countries as we go forward; he made that point very clear," the lawmaker continued. "I think the real point is not has this been executed in the best way–it clearly has not and it clearly is chaotic, and he's not checking with the right sources."
"It's a mess as his whole campaign has been, but what he's doing is wrong," Ellison said.
Ellison cited the equal protection clause, adding, "Religious tolerance is the core of American value. Donald Trump has broken that American value, and that is the heart of the problem."
David Ignatius of the Washington Post asked Ellison how Muslim Americans would be affected.
"People are afraid," Ellison said. "There are people all over the country who saw that there was this mosque attack in Canada, and people really do feel that when the president green lights hatred of a particular group, that obviously the negative people will come out of the woodwork and do things that would not be socially acceptable like committing mass murder."
Ellison added that Trump's order was promoting the idea that Muslims are dangerous people.
"The refugees we're talking about here get screened 18 to 24 months," he continued. "These people are under intense vetting already. This is not American national security. This is about prejudice and about singling out people, and we've got to keep the focus on what is really happening here."
"Our country is in a Japanese internment space, and I hope folks really focus in on that," Ellison concluded.