“Trump and Stephen Miller are engaged in a relentless and radical effort to keep out and kick out immigrants and refugees on the basis of race, religion, gender, and class”
The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, assessing the current moment and larger implications of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling to greenlight Trump’s ban on working class immigrants.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
It’s time to connect the dots. When we step back from the daily barrage of disturbing immigration policy changes, we see clearly that Trump and Stephen Miller are engaged in a relentless and radical effort to keep out and kick out immigrants and refugees on the basis of race, religion, gender, and class in a drive to slow the demographic changes underway in America. To make matters worse, this unprecedented overhaul of U.S. immigration and refugee policy is being undertaken by executive fiat.
- In the very first week of this administration, Trump and Miller enacted a Muslim ban, which caused protests throughout American airports and worldwide condemnation;
- They later augmented their attack on Muslims and others by slashing refugee admissions to the lowest level in 40 years;
- They have systematically targeted Latino immigrants and refugees with a range of policies — from workplace raids to attacks on local jurisdictions that refuse to turn over ordinary undocumented immigrants to ICE to the evisceration of an existing set of priorities with respect to deportation to the separation of families to the indiscriminate use of deadly detention centers to the gutting of the asylum system to deny Central Americans and others the opportunity to assert their legal right to apply for refugee status, while forcing those seeking safety in America into the hands of the cartels in northern Mexico;
- Last week, the administration announced a policy that targets women, mostly women of color, of childbearing age, instructing visa adjudicators to deny admission to those who are pregnant or who might become pregnant because they just might give birth on American soil;
- Yesterday, the Supreme Court once again aided and abetted this radical remaking of immigration policy by greenlighting a wealth test targeting working class immigrants, which will end up cutting legal immigration substantially through the back door;
- This week, they are planning to announce an expansion of the Muslim ban that targets mostly African immigrants;
- All of these policy changes, which are only the tip of the iceberg, take place against a backdrop of Trump’s rhetoric and campaign strategy, which dehumanizes and demonizes immigrants of color as criminals, terrorists and diseased.
Subtle, they are not.
Individually, these policy changes are insidious. Together, they amount to a fundamental assault on the type of country we aspire to be. They constitute the wish fulfillment of the ugly ideas regarding the Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by white nationalist White House advisor Stephen Miller in his emails to Breitbart.
If America is to live true to its creed that our nation is founded on ideas and ideals, not blood and soil, then we will have to remove these people from positions of power so that the majority can bring forth the comeback and changes needed to restore humane and workable immigration and refugee policies and an America that values people based on their contributions, regardless of background and birthplace.
