Los Angeles Lakers

Lakers forward Luol Deng comments on travel ban

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:35 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, SI Wire/Sports Illustrated

Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng says he wants to speak up and represent people who are affected by President Donald Trump's immigration travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries.

Trump's order banned travel from citizens of seven Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somalia from coming into the United States and sparked protests from citizens in major American cities.

"I know for a lot of refugees, they can't speak up or they can never be heard," Deng said after the Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday,

"A lot of these people go through a lot of things that they have no control of. To really see a light at the end of the tunnel and to go toward that light and then that light is turned off is very difficult, not just individually, but for the family."

Deng and his family fled Sudan when he was a child.

"I remember when I was a kid, as a refugee in Egypt, every day, there was always a hope that we'd get to leave tomorrow and we'd get to go somewhere," Deng said. "You never knew where, but we just wanted somewhere where we could have an opportunity to make something out of it. That opportunity came five years later. Now, I'm thankful for growing up in Egypt, and I've learned a lot, but at the same time, I know what it feels like to wait for that opportunity to come every day."

Deng said he doesn't know what solution is to the travel ban.

“If you really want to look into that, you’ve got to go into facts and what is true and what is not,” Deng said. “I mean, from what I understand, I haven’t seen a lot of refugees committing terrorist acts in this country.”

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