Former U.N. Ambassador Angelina Jolie Says Travel Policy 'Should Be Based on Facts, Not Fear'

— -- Angelina Jolie penned an op-ed in the New York Times today with her personal perspective on President Donald Trump's recent travel ban directed at seven countries with predominantly Muslim residents.

She focused her essay on the "men, women and children caught in the fury of war," who will most be affected by this ban and whom she says are "far from being terrorists, they are often the victims of terrorism themselves."

Trump's order, which went into effect last Friday, suspends immigration and admission of refugees from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen into the U.S. for at least 90 days.

But Jolie added that she understands the "justifiable" move to secure America's borders in this current climate, but she believes that "our response must be measured and should be based on facts, not fear."

She added that she sees refugees as already "subject to the highest level of screening of any category of traveler to the United States."

The actress' children were all born abroad, three adopted from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam, but are all American citizens. She said she wants more than anything for America to be a safe place for them and all American children, as well as provide opportunity to others.

"I also want to know that refugee children who qualify for asylum will always have a chance to plead their case to a compassionate America," she said.

The 41-year-old humanitarian advocate made her plea, in part, based on her experience as an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She said only the "most vulnerable people are put forward for resettlement" in America, including torture survivors, women and children.

"I have visited countless camps and cities where hundreds of thousands of refugees are barely surviving and every family has suffered. When the United Nations Refugee Agency identifies those among them who are most in need of protection, we can be sure that they deserve the safety, shelter and fresh start that countries like ours can offer," she wrote.

She added that she believes closing America's borders is like "playing with fire."

"We are lighting a fuse that will burn across continents, inviting the very instability we seek to protect ourselves against," she wrote. "What will be our response if other countries use national security as an excuse to start turning people away, or deny rights on the basis of religion?"

Trump has argued with reports calling this a "Muslim ban," saying personally and through his White House spokesman Sean Spicer that the ban wasn't meant to target one religion.

Jolie cited the high percentage of Muslim citizens in these seven countries, adding, "If we create a tier of second-class refugees, implying Muslims are less worthy of protection, we fuel extremism abroad, and at home we undermine the ideal of diversity cherished by Democrats and Republicans alike."

"If we Americans say that these obligations are no longer important, we risk a free-for-all in which even more refugees are denied a home, guaranteeing more instability, hatred and violence," she continued. "Shutting our door to refugees or discriminating among them is not our way, and does not make us safer. Acting out of fear is not our way. Targeting the weakest does not show strength."