In response to a Thursday night story by the San Francisco Chronicle which said that “the Trump administration is considering an executive action that could use travel ban-like authority to block certain asylum seekers at the Mexican border,” the chair of Families Belong Together issued a statement strongly condemning the possibility that President Trump is about to take action.
“This is straight up a Latino Ban,” Jess Morales Rocketto said. “The Trump Administration and the Republican Party have become the party of cruelty to families. This latest, immoral Republican attack on Latino families goes against our values as Americans. They have banned people from this country based on religion, then they separated children from their parents and now they are banning people based on race and place of origin. By doubling down on discrimination and division based on race and place of origin, they are advancing a blatantly political agenda that is deeply at odds with Americans’ shared values of family, fairness and inclusion. Americans of all parties and backgrounds will reject this outrageous attack on our values, our laws and our history of support for human rights. We can have common sense immigration laws that make our country strong by respecting people’s rights and honoring our shared values. All Americans want a better life and more opportunities for our children. But when it comes to the American Dream, Trump and his Republican allies are saying ‘Latinos need not apply.’”
The Chronicle story noted that the possible plan is still “in the formative stages,” and that it “could ultimately be cast aside.”
Later on Thursday night, Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued this statement:
“This is one more disturbing and dangerous development in a string of xenophobic attacks on immigrant communities. With this threat to ban Latinx immigrants, Trump is once again showing us that his racism-driven cruelty has no bounds, as he did with the implementation of the Muslim Ban and separation of families at the border. Since day one of Trump’s presidency, he has made it clear that his administration will do anything in its power to make immigrants feel unsafe and unwelcome in this country.
“It is unconscionable that Trump continues to play political games while putting forth radical and extremist policies which will have real-life consequences on people seeking to exercise their legal rights to apply for asylum, as well as cause unprecedented economic harm to the vibrant U.S.-Mexico border communities that depend on migrants coming back and forth daily.
“We will continue to stand with our civil rights, Latinx, immigrant, Muslim and refugee communities to fight these xenophobic and hateful attacks. We are strong. We are resilient. We will use every tool to stop Trump from undermining the Constitution and international laws, and from instituting his administration’s agenda to impose a Latinx Ban in any form. We call all communities to reject these policies of hate. We can and must be better than this.”
