These Districts Have the Most Foreign-Born from Countries Trump Banned

Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order outlawing citizens of 7 majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. The ban is in effect for 90 days — and the administration claims it is just a starting point for an even broader ban that may go into effect at a later date.

One of the countries affected by the ban, Syria, is in the midst of a refugee crisis of unimaginable proportions. With mass confusion over the implementation of the ban when it went into effect last week, many refugees and legal immigrants were stopped and detained at airports across the country. Many were on their way to see family members in the United States. Over 800,000 people born in one of the banned countries already legally reside in the U.S. Using Census data, we made a map of where those people live in each of the 435 Congressional districts across the country.

Map: Congressional Districts with Foreign-Born from Banned Countries

Click here for full-screen version.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey records comprehensive information on foreign-born people living in the United States, including in which country they were born. In the map below, you can find detailed information on how many foreign-born people live in each district from six of the countries affected by the ban. The Census Bureau does not have information on people born in Libya, instead they are included in the “Other North Africa” classification. Using data from Cicero, I included Representative contact information. This Vox article lists Republicans in Congress who haven’t yet taken a position on the ban.

Foreign-born from the banned countries tend to cluster in major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, each individual country’s foreign-born are dispersed in very different ways across the U.S. Using the R package ggplot2, the Data Analytics team created graphs showing the Congressional districts with the most foreign-born from each of the countries included in the ban, as well as Other North Africa.