Hours after the Academy criticized President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban as being “extremely troubling,†the Writers Guild of America has issued a pointed statement of their own. Trump’s executive order — which bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from entering the U.S. — gained prominence in the film industry this weekend due to Iranian director Asghar Farhadi having difficulty getting a visa to attend next month’s Oscars ceremony to celebrate his film, The Salesman, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Farhadi ultimately decided to skip the ceremony even if granted permission by the government, and now the Writers Guilds are rallying their support around the filmmaker. “It is both unconstitutional and deeply wrong to say that you cannot enter our country because of where you were born or what religion you were born into,†read the statement. “The Writers Guilds of America, East and West condemn Donald Trump’s profoundly un-American ‘Muslim ban,’ and applaud the Federal Court’s decision to grant a stay that will keep those being held at American airports from being forcibly returned to their countries. Human rights — including the freedoms of speech and religion — are essential to all Americans and to all who come here to build better lives.â€
The Writers Guilds continued to stress the importance of the “imagination of immigrants†in the entertainment industry. “Our guilds are unions of storytellers who have always welcomed those from other nations, and of varying beliefs, who wish to share their creativity with America,†the statement concluded. “We are grateful to them, we stand with them, we will fight for them.†In addition to the Academy and the Writers Guilds, numerous amounts of celebrities are publicly condemning Trump’s Muslim ban.