Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday urged President Donald Trump to cancel the temporary ban imposed by executive order on some travelers and all refugees entering the United States.

“The vast majority of refugees admitted to the United States are families, mainly comprised of women and children, and all refugees are admitted only after they make it through the world’s toughest vetting program,” Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said in a statement. He added that many of the refugees slated for resettlement domestically had risked their lives helping U.S. forces.

A state agency said the number of refugees settling in Colorado is anticipated to be roughly half what the state has seen in recent years if the executive order stays in effect.

The presidential decree, which has faced furious backlash since Trump signed it on Friday, bars refugees entering the country for 120 days and has halted travel to the United States by all citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia – for 90 days. It also imposes an open-ended ban on the arrival of refugees from Syria and cuts the total number of refugees allowed into the country this year roughly in half, from 110,000 to 50,000.

“We can and should continue to work with the federal government and (the Department of) Homeland Security to ensure that the verification system used to screen refugees is as stringent as possible,” Hickenlooper said. “But we can do that while we honor our values as Americans. Religious tests and blanket bans diminish those values and injure our international reputation. The executive order serves as a powerful recruiting tool for our enemies and needlessly antagonizes our allies around the world.”

Hickenlooper said he believes the order threatens the safety of Americans at home and abroad. “We urge the President to rescind the executive order,” he concludes.

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services said officials estimate 1,042 refugees will be resettled in Colorado for the fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, compared with the 2,195 refugees the state had anticipated. That calculation includes the 736 refugees – 88 of them from Syria – that have already arrived during the period plus those that could make it to Colorado if the executive order’s moratorium is lifted after four months.

“Of those who had been set to come to Colorado between now and the end of the federal fiscal year, we expected 83 would have been Syrians,” said CDHS spokeswoman Alicia Caldwell.

While no refugees were en route to Colorado when the order was signed, the state had expected 55 refugees to arrive this week, including families from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, she said. They will likely remain in refugee camps.

The number of refugees arriving in Colorado has been fairly steady for some time. Last year, the total was 1,960. For the 2015 fiscal year, it was 1,853 refugees, and 1,991 refugees the year before that and 1,854 refugees the year before that.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com