Trump signs bill to aid persecuted minorities

President Donald Trump has signed the Genocide Relief Act into law, backing an effort to help Christians and other religious minorities being persecuted by ISIS.

Apparently one of the things that congressional Republicans and Democrats can agree on is that ISIS is bad, and Chaldean Christians and others who were persecuted by the terror group should be helped.

The bill, which helps religious refugees in the Middle East, was signed into law last week in the Oval Office.

"This bill continues my administration's efforts to direct U.S. assistance toward persecuted communities, including through faith-based programs," Trump said at the signing. "It also allows government agencies to assist a range of entities in investigating and prosecuting ISIS's despicable acts."

National security analyst Bob Maginnis tells OneNewsNow that U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) was behind the law, which enlists groups like USAID to bring humanitarian and other funds to bear.

"USAID has a genocide recovery and persecution response group, which is very critical," he says, pointing out that a majority of Christians in Iraq have fled because of the persecution they endured from Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Maginnis, who studies national security for the Family Research Council, says the ISIS purge also left most of the churches and other religious sites---some of which dated back to early Christendom---ruined beyond repair.

That and the human toll amount to war crimes.

"We're looking for all the ISIS jihadis that we can find," he says, "and gather evidence to try them in international court of law on human rights violations."