Washington, DC — Detention Watch Network (DWN) condemns Trump’s presidential proclamation to unlawfully ban migrants from long-standing asylum protections as the latest attack in his anti-immigrant arsenal.
Mary Small, Policy Director of DWN issued the following statement:
“Trump’s latest move to unlawfully ban asylum protections falls in line with his administration’s unrelenting anti-immigrant agenda to stoke hate within his white nationalist base. Trump will stop at nothing, including jeopardizing people’s lives and debasing core democratic values, to promote discrimination, repression and fear.
By denying people critical, life-saving asylum protections, Trump will be funneling even more people into a deadly web of immigration detention. The detention system has grown to 44,631 people per day—a thousand more people in just the last month—taxing an already massive system that is plagued by abuse, neglect and mismanagement.
Trump’s asylum ban and the looming announcement to partner with the https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/releases/2018/trump-prev... Department of Defense (DOD) on massive detention camps intersect to bolster Trump’s efforts to appropriate more funds to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ahead of the December 7 budget deadline. These intersections are part of an immoral roadmap to criminalize, incarcerate and deport immigrants at large.
Members of Congress must vehemently reject the asylum ban and stop Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda where they can: funding negotiations for ICE and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP).
Our elected officials must divest from ICE and CBP, agencies that tear apart our families and terrorize our communities. ICE and CBP are the bedrock of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. Members of Congress must instead support critical education, housing and health care programs that taxpayers care about rather than bankrolling Trump’s nationalist anti-immigrant agenda driven by hate.”
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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.