Luol Deng is right. Refugees affected by Donald Trump’s travel ban aren’t committing terrorist attacks

Add Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng to the growing list of NBA players and coaches to speak out on President Donald Trump’s immigration ban. Deng, who has roots as a South Sudanese refugee, initially posted his thoughts on Twitter in a message highlighted by the hashtag “#ProudRefugee.”

But after the Lakers’ 120-116 Tuesday night win over the Denver Nuggets, the two-time All-Star fleshed out his feelings toward the new policy preventing non-American citizens from seven countries from entering the United States. Those countries include Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

“I’ve watched the news and I’ve read a lot. 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, according to the Orange County Register’s Mark Medina. “From what I understand, I haven’t seen a lot of refugees committing terrorist acts in this country I’m speaking about.”

Deng is right. No refugee accepted by the United States, Syrian or not, has been connected to a major act of terrorism since the Refugee Act of 1980, according to a Sept. 2016 analysis of terrorism immigration risks by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Prior to 1980, the only refugees to successfully carry out terrorist attacks in the U.S. were Cuban, according to CNN.

Deng is not affected by President Trump’s immigration ban — his hometown of Wau, Sudan became part of an independent South Sudan in 2011, a small difference he says confuses people. But the ban affects the people he knew growing up. Deng became a British citizen in 2006 after the United Kingdom granted him political asylum. He moved to the United States at age 14.

The Lakers veteran said while he doesn’t agree with the president’s executive order, he understands how American citizens can support the immigration ban.

“If somebody told me a story and that’s all I know, I’d probably act to what I’m hearing,” he said. “And whether it’s pointing things out to let people know, I don’t know what the solution is to it. But a lot of people that do support this are supporting it because of what they do believe and because of what they hear.”

Deng joins a host of players and coaches to speak out against President Trump’s executive order through traditional or social media. In the same night, Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried, one of several Muslim NBA players, blasted the decision, calling it “disrespectful.”

Deng, too, was not optimistic about the future, though he’s trying to be.

“We don’t know where it goes afterward,” he said. “So, right now, it’s just hope and being patient and seeing where it goes. No matter what, there’s always hope.”