Washington, DC — In response to Trump’s executive order, Danny Cendejas, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:
“This is not an about face for Trump. Trump created the crisis at the border with the primary goal to ruthlessly lock up as many people as possible and to make the case for immigrant detention expansion. With today’s executive order signing, Trump is doubling down on his anti-immigrant, nativist agenda by increasing the widely denounced policy of family detention, that puts women and children behind bars, exacerbating trauma and stripping people of their dignity. Furthermore, the executive order seeks to dismantle the Flores settlement, which limits child detention and provides critical safeguards.
We condemn Trump’s executive order and the poisonous Republican bills circulating by Representative Bob Goodlatte, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Ted Cruz. It is clear that these efforts by the GOP are all apart of the same design, to criminalize communities of color and expand the already massive, unaccountable and deadly immigrant detention system.
Members of Congress must stand with immigrants and keep families and communities together by voting no on the GOP bills, ending the zero tolerance policy of migrant prosecutions at the border, calling for the release of all people from detention and defunding the agencies the tear them apart, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to expose and challenge the injustices of the United States’ immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes the rights and dignity of all persons. Founded in 1997 by immigrant rights groups, DWN brings together advocates to unify strategy and build partnerships on a local and national level to end immigration detention. Visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org