AS REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR BILLIONS TO FUND IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN, THREE KEY QUESTIONS
Earlier this week, NBC News reported on a GOP budget resolution that includes an additional $175 billion for “for immigration enforcement, including ICE agents, detention beds and deportation resources.” Yet as elected Republicans like Lindsey Graham and GOP allies cite comments from unconfirmed border czar Tom Homan and other Trump administration immigration leaders, they are failing to provide specifics on how that immense amount of money would really be used. Will ICE continue to arrest, detain and deport indiscriminately, including targeting long-settled immigrants, those who have had legal status, and even U.S. citizens? As inflation and the cost of living continue to hurt everyday Americans, how will mass deportations of long-settled essential workers help lower prices and combat inflation? And will this funding continue to prioritize the arrest of immigrants who pose no public safety threat? These are key questions that deserve answers. “We are already witnessing the fear, the chaos and the harms of the Trump and Republican immigration agenda – not just on immigrants, but all Americans,” America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said. Read more here.
FAITH LEADERS, INCLUDING POPE FRANCIS, CONDEMN TRUMP’S ANTI-IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE POLICIES
Leaders from a wide variety of faith traditions are speaking out against the Trump administration’s cruel immigration and refugee agenda, calling instead for policies that align with broader values and seek to tamp down, instead of inflame, chaos and fear. Among leaders forcefully speaking out include Pope Francis, who issued an extraordinary letter to U.S. bishops condemning the demonization of migrants and plans for mass deportation. “It is one thing to develop a policy to regulate migration legally, it is another to expel people purely on the basis of their illegal status,” Pope Francis wrote. “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.” Other powerful voices include Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, D.C., Pastor Gabriel Salguero, evangelical leader and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, and Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. “The powerful comments of faith leaders from multiple traditions against the chaos and cruelty of President Trump’s immigration and refugee agenda offer important moral clarity at a moment of confusion and fear,” Cárdenas said. “These leaders are standing up for a vision of America and the world where we treat all of our neighbors with dignity and respect.” Read their remarks here.
TRUMP’S INDISCRIMINATE RAIDS CONTINUE TO ENSNARE U.S. CITIZENS
Despite talk about going after people who may pose a public safety threat, the Trump administration’s early immigration enforcement efforts are instead indiscriminate in nature, including multiple reports of U.S. citizens being ensnared in enforcement efforts. At The Bulwark, Adrian Carrasquillo reports that the Puerto Rican population on the mainland “is bearing the brunt” of these raids. “Already, there have been a handful of documented examples of raids and confrontations at Puerto Rican businesses, despite Puerto Ricans having automatic U.S. citizenship,” he writes. “The raids have startled Puerto Ricans, who are rushing to get passports out of fear that they could be targeted just for speaking Spanish or having brown skin.” Meanwhile, as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has insisted from her podium that all individuals detained by ICE are “criminals,” figures reported by ProPublica’s Mica Rosenberg and Perla Trevizo resoundingly debunk that claim, showing that less than half of the roughly 8,200 people arrested by the Trump administration actually do have a criminal record. “We fear we haven’t seen the worst yet – Trump’s cruel, chaotic and costly agenda targets our families, communities, our economy, and the values we hold dear,” responded Vanessa Cárdenas. Read more here.
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that Trump’s decision to revoke temporary protections from some Cuban, Nicaraguan, Haitian, and Venezuelan nationals seems surprising to some sectors that supported him and even gave him their vote. “But what’s surprising is that they thought that it was not going to happen, or that supporting Trump would, in some way, shield them from his plan for mass deportations,” Hastings writes. They include Florida Republicans María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart, and Carlos Giménez, who issued a call to DHS to reconsider the decision to make these migrants deportable. “But these three supported Trump’s candidacy when he was going around saying he would lead the largest mass deportation program in the history of the United States.” Cuban-American voters in Florida also overwhelmingly supported Trump despite his pledge to revoke temporary protections from many Cuban migrants. “But for some reason, like many Latinos around the country, they didn’t take notice when Trump promised mass deportations,” Hastings writes. “They would be directed at ‘criminals,’ they said, apparently without suspecting that, in Trump and his advisors’ dictionary, being an immigrant is synonymous with ‘criminal.’” Her column was also published in several outlets, including La Opinión, MSN Noticias, and La Tribuna Hispana. Read her column in English here and Spanish here.
WHO IS UN AMBASSADOR NOMINEE ELISE STEFANIK?
It’s highly likely that New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will be confirmed due to the fact that she’s a sitting member of Congress and appears on the surface to be less extreme than other nominees. But a closer look at her record reveals that she was actually a key player in helping drive the GOP down the far-right rabbit hole, America’s Voice Research Associate Yuna Oh writes. While Stefanik positioned herself as a moderate early in her political career, including opposing Trump on several occasions, she would make a calculated move to embrace election denialism and the same deadly white nationalist rhetoric that would later be used by a racist mass shooter in her state. And while Stefanik condemned the horrific 2017 Charlottesville rally, she was silent when Trump last year minimized the deadly racist gathering as “a little peanut.” After then-Rep. Liz Cheney refused to submit to the Big Lie, Stefanik saw an opportunity to catapult herself into GOP House leadership. Cheney wrote at the time that “Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.” But for Stefanik, the choice had already been made. She was fully onboard – with Trump. Read more here.
HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH
There is no American history without Black history. America’s Voice is proud to celebrate the vast contributions of Black Americans, including Black immigrants who help our nation prosper. Click here to share our graphic celebrating Black History Month and the immense contributions of Black immigrants to the United States.
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS
In addition to the recent powerful comments from faith leaders pushing back against Trump’s immigration and refugee plans, more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups have filed a lawsuit over a recent policy decision making houses of worship vulnerable to ICE raids, arguing that it is “lowering attendance at worship services” and “infringes on the groups’ religious freedom,” the AP reports. The faith groups range from “the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists” and represent millions of Americans, the report continued. “We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear,” the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, told the AP. “By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.” Read more here. Faith voices are also challenging a cruel Trump order that indefinitely suspends the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program (USRAP) and cuts off critical assistance to the most vulnerable. “The American Jewish community owes its very existence to those times when the United States opened its doors to refugees fleeing anti-Semitism and persecution,” HIAS President Mark Hetfield reflected on the group’s participation in the litigation. “HIAS will stand for welcome, stand up for what we believe in, and fight this refugee ban in court.” Read more here.
Not a subscriber to our weekly immigration policy and politics updates? You can sign up right here.
