Out billionaire Peter Thiel has
defended President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.
The president's order, signed Friday,
targets the Muslim community by barring Syrian refugees from entering
the United States indefinitely and blocking citizens from seven
predominantly Muslim nations from traveling to the United States for
90 days. Those countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria and Yemen. The order also blocks entry of all refugees to the
United States for 120 days.
“Peter doesn't support a religious
test, and the administration has not imposed one,” Thiel
said through a spokesman.
During the presidential campaign, Trump
repeatedly vowed he would prohibit Muslims from entering the United
States.
In an interview with the Christian
Broadcasting Network (CBN), Trump said that persecuted Christians
would be given priority over other refugees trying to enter the
United States.
The order sparked a backlash, with
thousands of demonstrators protesting at international airports
throughout the country. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
which is challenging the order in court, raised a record $24.2
million online over the weekend, more than five times what it
typically receives in a “good” year, the ACLU said.
Thiel, who said he was proud to be a
gay Republican at last year's Republican National Convention in
Cleveland, emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1977. He
currently serves as a tech adviser to the president.