Anne Frank centre blasts Donald Trump refugee ban drawing parallels to internment of Japanese Americans

'Today the Statue of Liberty weeps over President Trump's discrimination'

Donald Trump signs executive order to start Mexico border wall project (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's executive orders to ban refugees and build a wall on the Mexican border make Wednesday "one of the most hateful days in our nation's history," the Anne Frank centre for Mutual Respect has said.

The centre, founded by Anne's father Otto, released a public statement criticising the US president's policies.

"As President Trump prepares orders to wall out Mexicans and shut out refugees from America, today marks one of the most hateful days in our nation's history," Steven Goldstein, the centre's executive director, wrote on Facebook.

"Donald Trump is retracting the promise of American freedom to an extent we have not seen from a President since Franklin Roosevelt forced Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II.

"Today the Statue of Liberty weeps over President Trump's discrimination."

The centre also posted a series of tweets blasting the former reality TV star for attacking immigrants.

In his statement, Mr Goldstein said Mr Trump was "beyond the wrong side of history" and was "driving our nation off a moral cliff".

He also warned Mr Trump was using "national security as a guise for racism".

He added: "President Trump is now exacerbating the largest global refugee crisis in history.

"His slamming America's doors on the starving, the wounded and the abused is a grotesque blot on our nation's history of freedom."

Accusing the US president of exacerbating the largest refugee crisis in history, Mr Goldstein said: "Demonising refugees and immigrants, and spending billions of taxpayer dollars to keep them out of our nation, will go down in American history as one of the most tragic deviations from our national conscience."

Otto Frank founded the Anne Frank centre for Mutual Respect in 1959. He said he wanted to "build a world based on equal rights and mutual respect".