Mijente Statement on Trump’s Proposed Ban on Birthright Citizenship

In response to President Trump’s claim that he can use executive powers to ban birthright citizenship, Mijente issued the following statement:

October 30 marks yet another day when members of the Latinx community find themselves asking the same question we’ve been asking for the past two years: Could it get any worse? The answer today for many of us across our communities is, yes, it can.

Today, in response to Donald Trump’s stated intention to ban birthright citizenship, another barely-veiled assault on the rights of immigrants and other communities of color, Mijente is calling on all our allies, old and new, to reject the Trump administration by showing up in force in the final days of GOTV and at the polls.

“If you marched against family separation and the criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers, if you remain horrified that children are still living in internment camps in the borderlands, we urge you to respond to this latest shot from the Trump administration with all the energy and resources you have,” Mijente director Marisa Franco said.

Together with the Working Families Party, Mijente is declaring November 6 not just an election day but the biggest action day of the year, a referendum on the Trump agenda and his administration’s tactics.

The promises and actions from Trump in the final weeks and days leading up to the midterms are a transparent and cynical attempt to sow fear and division that cannot go unanswered, not only by the Latinx community but by all who are disgusted by this callous administration. While Trump is doubling down on the right-wing extremism that delivered him the White House in 2016, it’s up to us to throw everything we can to put a check on him and his dangerous enablers and cheerleaders.

“Trump said he would drain the swamp, but he has flooded our political system with corruption. He said he would fight for the underdog, yet he defends dictators and delivers policies for billionaires. He has tried to strip everyday working people of our rights and dignity, because of our race, our class, our gender, or because of who we love. The midterms are a vote to demonstrate where you stand on Trumpism,” Franco said.

Mijente recognizes that many communities beyond immigrants and Latinx are under attack. We affirm our support for all marginalized and targeted populations who face growing threats and refuse to our work around a single issue or policy, because every tragedy —from Louisville to Pittsburgh to Tornillo— is directly related to the last one, or unfortunately, to the next one.

Trump has declared war on all of us, not just the most vulnerable. He is using us for his political purposes right now—as scapegoats, as punching bags, as bogeymen and bogeywomen, as a collection of old stereotypes to be exploited for the benefit of sowing division and hate.

Trump and his supporters know how important these elections are, and they know how powerful our community is. They are throwing attack after attack in the hope that we will go numb with fear, retreat or withdraw. Mijente and our friends and partners must show up and show up big. We may not be able to solve the immensity of the crises we face on one election day, with one action, or in one campaign, but we can do everything we can and show up for each other in this moment of crisis.

“The problems are big, for sure”, Franco said. “But so are we.”

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Mijente is a national Latinx organization leading on mobilizing against immigration enforcement and criminalization. As a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing, Mijente seeks to increase the profile of policy issues that matter to our communities and increase the participation of Latinx and Chicanx people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice.