A recording of the call is available here.
Earlier today, leading immigration, border security and national security experts gathered on a press call sponsored by America’s Voice and National Security Action to discuss the Trump administration’s conflation of immigration and national security issues.
The Trump administration continues to point to a DHS report linking immigration and terrorism as justification for its ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policies, despite criticism from counterterrorism experts that doing so is ‘misleading’ at best. For experts, the concern is that this administration jeopardizes public safety by playing politics with our national security and enacting counterproductive policy approaches.
Matthew Olsen, Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC):
The administration’s effort to justify its immigration policies on national security grounds relies on false and misleading assertions about the threats we really face. The net effect of this effort is to make us less safe.
Cecilia Muñoz, Former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council:
This Administration is promoting symbols over substance in a way that substantially interferes with the government’s ability to keep us secure. Their border policies may sound tough, but they actually undercut our security, plain and simple.
Ur Jaddou, Director of DHS Watch at America’s Voice & former USCIS Chief Counsel:
Our national security depends heavily on a system of laws and policies that are stable and transparent, but that’s not what we’re seeing with this administration. Instead, we’ve seen chaos and instability under the travel ban, TPS, DACA, refugee and asylum law and policy, deportations with no regard to rational priorities, and insecurity for businesses wishing to grow with foreign innovators and families hoping to reunite with loved ones. This is no way for a stable democracy to operate and protect itself. Instead, it is a recipe for insecurity.
