Tag: Congressman Steve Cohen

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US Department of Transportation Allocates Millions to Memphis Intersection Improvement

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)has allocated $13.1 million for improvements to one of the most dangerous intersections in the city of Memphis.

Last week the department announced its fiscal year 2024 (FY24) Safe Streets and Roads for All grants, which totaled $172 million, nationwide. Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced that the city would be using its funding to redesign the intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue and Pendleton Street.

“This complex intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street has a confusing array of signals, fading and disjointed pedestrian connectivity, and little guidance on appropriate movements,” USDOT officials said.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) said this corridor faces “crippling congestion” affecting freight facilities, warehouse and distribution centers, as well. The agency applied for funding for Lamar Avenue in 2018 through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program, receiving $71.1 million for improvements.

According to USDOT, the city plans to close one of the roads at the intersection to provide a simpler design in hopes of improving safety. Other enhancements will include a public education campaign, a pilot program for a camera magnification system, and crash data analysis technology.

Another allocation was made to the MidSouth Development District for $2, 419, 870 from the FY 2024 Planning and Demonstration Grant Award to further address traffic-related injuries.through a “Comprehensive Safety action Plan.” 

USDOT officials said the grant will use data analysis, stakeholder input, and best practices to implement a plan to reduce “roadway fatalities” across the region.

“The demonstration activities will include a Safe Routes to School demonstration and EMT post-crash care training,” USDOT added.

Cohen said he was pleased to vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which has lead to the funding for these improvements.

“ I am sure that having this new investment in comprehensive safety planning will help save lives,” Cohen said in a statement.

Memphis was ranked the most dangerous metro city for pedestrians earlier this year by the nonprofit organization Smart Growth America. Their data showed that more than half of pedestrian deaths (65 percent) over the last decade happened in the last five years.

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Politics Politics Feature

Tag Teaming a Grant

Rep. Cohen takes the pledge at last weekend’s Kennedy Dinner of the Shelby County Democratic Party. (Photo: Courtesy Lexie Carter)

“We’ve secured $13.1 million in federal funding to overhaul one of the most dangerous intersections in our city — Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street.”

So begins an online notification from the office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, and it is accompanied by a photograph of the mayor with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

The notification goes on to boast that “[w]e’re not just fixing a dangerous intersection — we’re transforming it with clearer signals, safer crosswalks, and better pedestrian pathways” — all of it being “a huge step towards ensuring that every Memphian can navigate our streets with confidence and peace of mind.”

Sounds good all right. I remember that intersection from the days when, as a 14-year-old, I threw the old Memphis Press-Scimitar in that neighborhood. In vintage times, it was where the old streetcars did a turnaround, and it absolutely was hazardous to negotiate, especially on a bicycle.

And comes yet another online notification — this one from 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen: “I’m pleased to announce a new investment of $13.1 million [under the] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act … to completely redesign the dangerous intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street …”

The congressman, a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, notes further, “I strongly advocated for this project and for funding to improve our streets in hearings with Secretary Buttigieg and in letters of support to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and I’m proud we brought it home.”

Well, er, to whom goes the honor of having snagged this benefit from the feds? The mayor or the congressman?

Both, as it turns out. Asked about it, Cohen calls it a “cooperative joint effort” and says, in a text, “The mayor was a planner, and they’re his people. Politics and pitching by congressmen certainly helps. … Grants don’t just fall out of a coconut tree.”

And credit for the grant goes even further. Cohen points out that the grant, in its original form, was first proposed by former Mayor Jim Strickland and had been included as an earmark in legislation that, before being resurrected, was stalemated in a previous session of Congress.

All of which is to say that, yes, it does indeed take a village to get things done.

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vote of the Shelby County Commission on Monday to support the City Council’s lawsuit against the Election Commission to restore a gun-safety referendum on the November ballot was passed on a party-line vote — nine Democrats aye, four Republicans no.

Speaking for the Republicans, Commissioner Mick Wright quoted Governor Bill Lee’s concerns, expressed earlier Monday in Memphis, that the city should find itself at odds “with the rest of the state.” Democratic Commissioner Henri Brooks countered that it was “time to stand up to bullies.” And other commissioners tended to follow their party’s line.

With its vote, the commission became an “amicus curiae” in support of the suit, which has caused various GOP state officials to talk ominously about withholding shared state funding from Memphis.

• Citing the prosecution in Georgia of a father who armed his son with an AR-15 used in a fatal school shooting, Democratic state Rep. Antonio Parkinson says he intends to re-introduce his measure to penalize “a person who illegally transfers a firearm to a minor” using it for criminal purposes. Parkinson’s bill was introduced in last summer’s special session on gun safety but was tabled by the majority Republicans.

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New Law Would Make Public Some of TVA’s Biggest Salaries

TVA president and CEO Jeff Lyash. (Credit: Toby Sells)

A bipartisan bill filed Tuesday would require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to make salary information public for employees who make some of its largest paychecks.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) introduced the measure that would make public salaries for TVA employees who make more than $109,908, or the maximum basic pay rate for many of the federal government’s top-level positions. 

Lyash refused to give salary specifics last month in a hearing before a House committee. In it, Cohen said he has requested that salary information in the past and never received it. He wanted to know why. 

Lyash said part of the TVA Act once required those salaries be listed in a report to Congress and the White House. However, that requirement was changed with a 1995 federal law and TVA was asked to stop filing the report. Now, Lyash said his agency is only required to give detailed salary information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

“That’s not the people that created the TVA,” Cohen said. “That’s not what the TVA Act requires, and that’s just not right, Jeff. It’s not right. You’re part of the government. You’re created by the United States government. You’re part of it. 

“Salary should be transparent. And when people are making over $1 billion, the public ought to know who they are and what they’re doing.”

With that, Cohen’s speaking time in the hearing had expired. However, his line of comment was picked up by U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves (R-South Louisiana). 

“Your position is unsustainable, if you’re not going to give him the information he’s asking for” Graves said to Lyash. “You’re a government entity. You need to provide him the information. 

“Just to give you a little counsel there, I’d strongly urge you to do it. Otherwise, you’re going to be compelled to do it and you can either cooperate or it’s going get a little ugly. I’d urge you to comply with his request.”

Burchett struck an optimistic note in a news release about the new TVA bill.

 â€œI have seen the TVA improve its transparency in recent years, and I want to make sure that continues,” Burchett said in a news release. “This bill will help Congress keep TVA accountable for how it pays its employees, which is an important part of preserving its public trust.” 

The new bill is not the first time the two Tennessee lawmakers worked together on pay at TVA. Last year, they introduced another bill that would likely lower the pay of TVA’s CEO, Jeff Lyash. The bill would have reduced his pay to a level comparable with those of CEOs at other public utilities.

Lyash is the highest-paid federal employee, making up to nearly $10 million annually after benefits and bonuses. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump called Lyash’s pay “ridiculous” and threatened (but failed) to cut that pay “by a lot.”

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News News Feature

Abortion Rights Supporters March in Downtown Memphis

Abortion rights supporters march on Beale Street on May 14, 2022. (photo by Chris McCoy)

Hundreds gathered in the hot sun to rally in support of abortion rights on Saturday in Downtown Memphis. The crowd was protesting the anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision that would reverse the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade, the decision which affirmed women’s Constitutional right to abortion via their right to privacy.

A Planned Parenthood of Memphis and North Mississippi official declined to estimate how many attended the Bans Off Tennessee protest, beyond noting more than 1,200 had signed up for the event through the organization’s online organizing portal. The rally crowd spilled out of Ida B. Wells Plaza, dwarfing the dozen or so Proud Boys counter-protesters, who flashed white supremacist hand signs at the line of feminist protestors facing them across Beale Street.

A Proud Boy flashes a white power hand sign at abortion rights protestors. (photo by Chris McCoy)

Among the speakers at the hour-long rally were Tennessee House Representative London Lamar, scientist and Shelby County Democratic Party chairwoman Gabby Salinas, Planned Parenthood organizers Antoine Dandridge and Aerris Newton, Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, and candidate for Tennessee State Senate Ruby Powell Dennis.

Planned Parenthood organizer Aerris Newton speaks next to the statue of Ida B. Wells. (photo by Chris McCoy)

After the rally, most of the attendees braved the heat to march down Beale Street, where tourists and revelers watched and took pictures of the throng. At one point, a street singer incorporated the marchers’ chant “My body, my choice” into a blues song.

Abortion rights protestors march down Beale Street. (photo by Chris McCoy)
A spectator applauds the marchers on Beale Street. (photo by Chris McCoy)

The marchers turned onto Main Street, where their chants of “No justice, no peace” echoed through the urban canyons. While taking pictures of the crowd, this reporter almost ran over Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis, who was cheering on the marchers from the south sidewalk.

Abortion rights protestors march past the Orpheum in Downtown Memphis. (photo by Chris McCoy)

By this time, the tiny counter-protest had melted away. Beyond the occasional thumbs-down along the route, there were few signs of dissent from the marchers message in support of women’s rights to make their own reproductive health decisions.

Abortion rights protestors arrive at the National Civil Rights Museum. (photo by Chris McCoy)

The energized crowd arrived for a second rally at the National Civil Rights Museum, where organizer Newton led chants. Cohen thanked the marchers for braving the heat and told the crowd he was with them “one million percent.” Volunteers handed out water bottles as the protesters mixed about, sharing their stories of experiences with abortion and their personal awakening to the cause. No violence or arrests were observed.

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) rallies the crowd at the National Civil Rights Museum. (photo by Chris McCoy)
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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Cohen Demands Restoration of Postal Services

9th District Congressman Steve Cohen has weighed in

emphatically on the changes in the U.S. postal service, already effected or proposed by President Trump’s newly installed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy.

Both at a Monday press conference with local postal workers and in a Tuesday letter to DeJoy, Cohen demanded the restoration of machines already taken out of service. In the Memphis area, that has included several machines used in the process of sorting and delivering mail — affecting, as the Congressman noted, the successful delivery of “prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns, and absentee ballots.”
The text of the letter is as follows:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza West, Southwest Washington, D.C. 20260
Dear Postmaster General DeJoy,

August 19, 2020
I write to express my deep concerns about the removal of sorting machines in Memphis and across the country and urge you to return the machines into service. Among other things, the Postal Service delivers prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns and absentee ballots to millions of Americans.
It is my understanding that five out of twenty-four sorting machines, one of three machines used for sorting larger pieces of mail such as magazines, and one machine used in the revenue tallying process have been removed. Management has also reduced the number of employees assigned to run the machines. This has slowed delivery and reduced the amount of mail that can be processed each day.
I am especially concerned about the large mail sorters which might be needed to process and sort ballots if they are designed to be larger than the average letter. At such a critical time with elections approaching, these changes are ill-advised and could be detrimental to our Democracy.
The delivery of mail is vital to the fabric of our society and attempts to reduce service have harmed people and will continue to harm people without immediate action. I strongly urge you to reverse your decision, make sure all machines are put back into operation and ensure people can receive their mail in a timely manner.
As always, I remain, Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen Member of Congress

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Lee Issues Order “Urging” Statewide Shutdown, Stops Short of Mandating It

Under increasing pressure from numerous quarters, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday issued what he called “safer at home guidelines in every Tennessee county as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.”

But the Governor stressed, “This is not a mandated shelter in place, but instead urges Tennesseans who are in non-essential roles to remain at home….The executive order restricts businesses that cannot safely operate during COVID-19 including businesses like barber shops, salons, recreational and
entertainment outfits. It also provides for the continuation of essential businesses throughout every county to protect the economy.”

The “order” will go into effect at midnight Monday and will extend for two weeks, until April 14 at midnight.

Typical of those asking for stronger action was 9th District Congessman Steve Cohen, who issued a letter this afternoon containing this statement:

“I write today to urgently request you issue a mandatory shelter in place order for Tennessee and prohibit gatherings of more than ten people. I am proud to represent the Ninth District of Tennessee that connects Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, but I fear that, without these preventative measures, it will become a hub of illness that will quickly overcome Memphis’s health care facilities. I commend your decision to urge Tennesseans to shelter in place, but this virus crosses state and county lines and it is already claiming Tennessee lives. Your order must become mandatory.”< Meanehile, the entire Tennessee congressional delegation — Senatyors Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn and the nine members of the House — asked President Trump for additional disaster aid to the state, saying in part: “…On behalf of the State of Tennessee, we are writing to express our support for Governor Bill Lee’s request to declare a major disaster pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic beginning on January 20, 2020…..”

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Corey Strong To Challenge Cohen in the 9th District

Corey Strong

Yes, it’s true: Steve Cohen has an opponent. The 9th District Congressman, who has knocked off a serious string of Democratic challengers since 2006, when he first emerged victorious from a multi-candidate primary field, now faces a 2020 bid from Corey Strong, the former Shelby County Democratic chairman.

Strong acknowledges that Cohen has made the appropriate votes in Congress, supported legislation that a Democrat should have supported, properly backed up Democratic President Obama, and has correctly opposed Republican President Trump. Further, says Strong, the Congressman has successfully become a factor in key national dialogues.

What he has failed to do, Strong maintains, is to bring jobs to a home region that desperately needs them. Strong even finds evidence of this alleged failure in a well-publicized stunt staged by Cohen last spring on the House Judiciary Committee. That was the occasion in May when the Congressman ridiculed the failure of Attorney General William Barr to answer a subpoena by wolfing down pieces from a Kentucky Fried Chicken basket at his seat on the committee.

Cohen got headlines, both pro and con, and, says Strong, “I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is that we’ve got all kinds of local fried-chicken enterprises here in Memphis, and he could have made his point with them if he wanted. But he didn’t.”

Strong is well aware that Cohen, who is white and Jewish, has easily dispatched all previous would-be party rivals in his predominantly African-American Memphis district since that first victory in 2006. He has triumphed over Justin Ford, Willie Herenton, Tomeka Hart, Ricky Wilkins, and Nikki Tinker, all of whom had either name recognition or financial support or both.

He has done so, as Strong acknowledges, by careful attention to the needs of his constituency in most ways — save the aforementioned inability to raise the income level of his district.

Strong believes he can succeed at that task, where, he says, Cohen has not. And one way of demonstrating his prowess will be to raise a campaign budget that will allow him to compete with the financially well-endowed incumbent Congressman on relatively even terms..

“I will do that,” says Strong, a Naval Reserve officer who in 2017 became the renovated Shelby County Democratic Party’s bounce-back chairman after it was decommissioned by the state Democrats a year earlier during a period of internal stress and discord within the local party.

Strong acknowledges that Michael Harris, his successor as local party chairman, has had a difficult problem arousing support from party cadres because of issues stemming from his suspended law practice. But, says Strong, local Democrats have a duty to support their party.

The future congressional aspirations of current Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris have become so obvious as to make Harris’ ambitions something of a public proverb, and a good race next year by Strong, even if unsuccessful, could serve the purpose of setting up a future challenge against Mayor Harris. But Strong insists he is in the 9th District race this year to win.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Protect Net Neutrality

The free flow of information is critical not only to facilitate our commerce, but to ensure that our democracy thrives. While the First Amendment protects us from government attempts to suppress speech, protections from large corporations that use their market dominance to act as self-appointed information “gatekeepers” are not constitutionally guaranteed.

9th District Congressman Steve Cohen

Yet the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is supposed to protect and promote the public interest in the telecommunications industry, has undertaken an aggressive effort to repeal strong legal protections for net neutrality that ensure that information can flow unimpeded on the internet. As a result Americans could soon wake up in a country where online dissent has been diminished or sidelined. The informed commentary of marginal groups seeking to shape opinion could be blocked, slowed down, or otherwise given disfavored treatment by internet service providers serving their own commercial or even ideological interests and stifle the dissemination of accurate but unpopular views.

This fear of a top-down corporate suppression of opinion is not far-fetched. It’s the predictable consequence of a plan long sought by broadband service providers: To repeal the FCC 2015 Open Internet Order, which mandates equal treatment of content over the internet by broadband service providers. The commission’s chairman, Ajit Pai, has scheduled a vote to do just that on December 14. The FCC should reject this effort.

Chairman Pai’s plan would be a catastrophe for both technical innovation and civil discourse. Without net neutrality, a handful of dominant corporations that are both broadband providers and content providers could be in a position to stifle competing content and would have an obvious economic incentive to do so. Not only would this prevent new innovators from entering the marketplace, it would also allow such companies to decide what content is available to their customers and would also allow them to make access to competing content difficult if not impossible. In addition to being bad for consumers, such content discrimination is bad for democracy, for it potentially impedes citizens’ ability to receive the information they need to understand proposed policies, debate them and, if necessary, organize opposition to them.

The proposed FCC order repeals the strong net neutrality framework established in 2015 and would repeal the 2015 Order’s bans on blocking, throttling or paid prioritization – three of the gravest threats to equal access. Current rules prohibit broadband providers from blocking a website, slowing a website down or providing differential speeds for different websites based on whether the content provider has paid for faster service. This type of conduct by broadband providers could limit or block access to political dissent, marginal or minority views and complex ideas that help a healthy society function.

I have joined more than 40 of several of my colleagues in asking the FCC to abandon this extremely unpopular plan and to maintain strong net neutrality protections.

Strong net neutrality protections have proven to be one of the most important consumer protections of our time. Net neutrality is extremely popular because people realize slowing streaming speeds to discourage consumers from some sites just doesn’t seem fair. Blocking access to competitors seems unfairly restrictive. Rigging the market for the profit of a handful of internet service providers doesn’t appeal to people already rightly suspicious of corporate control of their lives.

Beyond all that, the proposed rule is not good for competition, innovation or creativity. Broadband investment has continued to surge under the open rules and could decline in a pay-to-play internet world. Slowing or crippling access to some websites is not innovation. A free internet permits access to all users, regardless of ability to pay. We don’t want an internet in which an elite has access to critical information or services and others are priced out.

The end of internet neutrality cannot be allowed to occur without a fight. What the FCC chairman has proposed would change the way we communicate, and not for the better.

Congressman Steve Cohen represents Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Cohen to Introduce Articles of Impeachment against Trump

In the wa

Rep. Cohen

ke of Charlottesville and President Trump’s apparent defense of the white nationalists who were the focus of disturbances there, Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen, ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, announced Thursday morning that he will introduce articles of impeachment against the President.

The Congressman’s statement follows:

August 17, 2017

Ranking Member Cohen to Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald Trump After Comments on Charlottesville

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today announced that he will be introducing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump following the President’s comments on the horrific events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I have expressed great concerns about President Trump’s ability to lead our country in the Resolution of No Confidence (H.Res. 456) that I introduced in July with 29 of my colleagues; however, after the President’s comments on Saturday, August 12 and again on Tuesday, August 15 in response to the horrific events in Charlottesville, I believe the President should be impeached and removed from office. Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national tragedy, the President said ‘there were very fine people on both sides.’ There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen.”

“We fought a World War to defeat Nazis, and a Civil War to defeat the Confederacy. In reaction to the downfall of the Confederacy, and the subsequent passage of the Reconstruction Amendments to our constitution, the KKK embarked on a dastardly campaign to terrorize and intimidate African Americans from exercising their newly acquired civil rights. Subsequent incarnations of the Klan continued to terrorize African Americans with lynchings and civil rights murders such as the assassination of Medgar Evers and the killings of Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman and other civil rights workers.”

“When I watched the videos from the protests in Charlottesville, it reminded me of the videos I’ve seen of Kristallnacht in 1938 in Nazi Germany. It appeared that the Charlottesville protesters were chanting ‘Jews will not replace us’ and ‘blood and soil,’ an infamous Nazi slogan, as they marched with torches that conjured up images of Klan rallies. None of the marchers spewing such verbiage could be considered ‘very fine people’ as the President suggested.

And it certainly appeared the participants were in lock-step. Some of the white nationalist protesters were interviewed by the media, such as Sean Patrick Nielsen. He said one of his three reasons for being there was ‘killing Jews.’ Another was Christopher Cantwell, one of the white nationalist leaders, who said he couldn’t watch ‘that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl’ and said he hoped ‘somebody like Donald Trump, but who does not give his daughter to a Jew,’ would lead this country

 As a Jew and as an American and as a representative of an African American district, I am revolted by the fact that the President of the United States couldn’t stand up and unequivocally condemn Nazis who want to kill Jews and whose predecessors murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, and could not unequivocally condemn Klansmen whose organization is dedicated to terrorizing African Americans.

“President Trump has failed the presidential test of moral leadership. No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry. No moral president would ever question the values of Americans protesting in opposition of such actions, one of whom was murdered by one of the white nationalists

 Senator John McCain rightfully tweeted this week that there was ‘no moral equivalency between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate.’ Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, “Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.”

President Trump has shown time and time again that he lacks the ethical and moral rectitude to be President of the United States. Not only has he potentially obstructed justice and potentially violated the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, but he has also shown that he is incapable or unwilling to protect Americans from enemies, foreign and domestic. Neo-Nazis and the KKK are domestic terrorists. If the President can’t recognize the difference between these domestic terrorists and the people who oppose their anti-American attitudes, then he cannot defend us.”

Martin NiemĂśller, a prominent Protestant pastor who was an outspoken critic of Adolph Hitler, said:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

“They have come for me, and for the majority of my Congressional constituency. Accordingly, I must speak out today after what happened on Saturday and our President’s subsequent response. It is morally and legally incumbent upon me, based on my oath of office, to introduce articles of impeachment.”

###

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Memphis Immigration Lawyers Fear the Worst, Look to Congress for Relief

Greg Siskind (l); Barry Frager

President Trump’s executive order creating new immigration bans has not left Memphis unscathed. Among the affected are the proprietors of two local law firms specializing in immigration matters, although both see their clientele as being the true victims, not themselves.

“These are harsh actions by the Trump administration, and they are already affecting a lot of people, by their tone as much as by their action,” said Barry Frager of the Frager Law firm. “People will fear leaving the U.S. on trips, uncertain as to whether they can get back. All this is increasing fear in the immigrant community as a whole, especially among the Muslim community.

Muslims constitute maybe 15 percent of his firm’s trade, said Frager. And he estimated that the effects of his practice would be a “wash,” given the balance between some emergency work that will come his way and the expected reduction in calls for the routine assistance that his firm provides — visas, green cards, and general compliance with a host of normal immigration requirements.

“Clearly, people will respond when they are afraid,” Frager said. “But under the Trump administration we do not expect a friendly environment where we’ll be able to help more people. I’m concerned that well be able to help less people be successful in matters affecting their status.”

Greg Siskind of Siskind Susser, another firm specializing in immigration matters, expressed similar thoughts. In the short term, “it’s not impacting us financially,” Siskind said of the Trump ban, which, for a projected 90-day period, has put a stop, regardless of visa category, to normal travel of non-citizens back and forth between the U.S. and seven Middle Eastern nations — Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Suden, Libya, and Syria.

The Trump ban also includes an absolute 120-day halt to admission to the United States of refugees fleeing the consequences of the civil war in Syria.

Siskind estimates that his Muslim clientele constitutes “from 15 to 25 percent” of his firm’s total.

Amid impassioned protests at several American airport locations, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Saturday night ordered a stay in enforcement of the Trump ban that had the effect of freeing up several hundred non-citizens who had been blocked on their re-arrival in America from trips to several of the seven affected nations.

But that accomplished only partial relief, noted Siskind. “For every person who was stuck in the airport here, there are probably 100 people abroad who can’t get back in.” That included “dual nationals,” people with passports from Canada as well as from one of the affected nations. “We do a lot of work for doctors, and a lot of them are from Iran or Syria,” said Siskind. He estimated that “from 5 to 7 of the top 10” physicians’ cases that his firm handles involve immigrants from Syria.

Like Frager, Siskind is dubious about the constitutionality of Trump’s actions, which both lawyers saw as targeted at Muslims, despite pro forma denials from the administration. On the basis of such additional news as was available on Sunday, Siskind did express a hope that immigrants from the seven affected nations who already possess green cards might find the barriers to their travel relaxed.

Both Frager and Siskind held their optimism in check, however, pending further developments. Both were hopeful that legal actions from the A.C.L.U and other opponents of the ban could accomplish some relief, but both saw Senator Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s Attorney General-designate, as the animating source of the President’s action, and both feared the worst on that account.

Both lawyers were also dubious about Congress’ ability to affect the outcome.

Said Frager: “My feeling is that the establishment portions of both the Democratic and Republican parties don’t quite know what to do right now with Donald Trump’s Presidency. I believe that the establishment doesn’t agree with the Trump administration but doesn’t know what to do about it.”

Siskind has similar sentiments — with a pointed edge to them. “I’d like to see what Congress will do, but they, and the normal agencies of government, seem to be sidelined, including our two Senators,” he said on Sunday. “I know where [9th District Congressman Steve] Cohen stands.” (The Memphis Democrat is vehemently opposed to Trump’s action.} “I’d like to see where [Republican 8th District] Congressman [David] Kustoff stands. They’ll be judged for a lot of years on what they do in the next week or two.

“If Congress just stands by and lets this happen, it’s a bad sign for what we’re going to see for the next couple of years.”

For the record, Senator Lamar Alexander issued this statement later on Sunday:

“This vetting proposal itself needed more vetting. More scrutiny of those traveling from war-torn countries to the United States is wise. But this broad and confusing order seems to ban legal, permanent residents with ‘green cards,’ and might turn away Iraqis, for example, who were translators and helped save lives of Americans troops and who could be killed if they stay in Iraq. And while not explicitly a religious test, it comes close to one which is inconsistent with our American character.”