TRUMP’S REVOCATION OF HAITIAN TPS IS UNCONSCIONABLE
On Thursday, the Trump administration announced the rescission of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants, whose work permits and protections against deportation are set to expire in summer 2025. Not only is this intentionally making half a million individuals deportable, it risks sending contributors to our communities and economy back to unsafe and life-threatening conditions. It’s in our nation’s interest to extend vital protections like TPS rather than to strip them, because deporting people who have current lawful status and are contributors will only fuel more chaos in U.S. communities and in Haiti alike, America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said. “It’s also the cruel policy complement to the way the Trump and Vance political campaign knowingly perpetuated dehumanizing and racist lies about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio,” she continued. “We stand with our friends in the Haitian American community and others in denouncing this unconscionable news.” Read more here.
FAITH LEADERS CALL FOR DIGNITY AND RESPECT FOR IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
This week, Cárdenas moderated a virtual press event where faith leaders from multiple faith traditions reaffirmed the importance of treating immigrants and refugees with dignity and respect and to call for policies that align with these core values. Speakers included Mark Hetfield, President of HIAS; Rev. William H. Lamar IV, Metropolitan AME Church; Rev. Gabriel Salguero, The Gathering Place and National Latino Evangelical Coalition; Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas; and Jim Simpson, Executive Director of the Center on Faith and Justice. Speakers also addressed the recent lawsuit filed on behalf of over two dozen Christian and Jewish religious denominations and associations in response to the Trump administration’s decision to make houses of worship vulnerable to raids. “The actions that we have seen from this administration are not oriented for sensible solutions; they are not oriented to any solutions at all,” Bishop Seitz said during the virtual press event. “They are a betrayal of our values. They are an attack on our families, and they risk weaponizing the law against the vulnerable.” Read more here.
FUNDING MASS DEPORTATION COMES AT A HIGH COST TO ALL OF US
We also noted how Trump and his GOP allies in Congress are seeking to increase spending on their mass deportation agenda up to tenfold the current CBP and ICE budget for building a border wall and scaled-up deportation resources at the expense of health care, child care and other vital programs for everyday Americans. Of note, this blank check would come as the administration already is demonstrating that its enforcement efforts are indiscriminate, targeting long-settled immigrants rather than actual public safety threats. “Already we are witnessing the fear, the chaos and the harms of the Trump and Republican immigration agenda – not just on undocumented immigrants, but on all of us,” responded Vanessa Cárdenas. “Now, they’re asking for a blank check to turbocharge mass deportations in a manner that wouldn’t advance public safety or reform a broken immigration system, but would harm our economy and competitiveness, destroy key industries, and trample on American families and American values.” Read more here.
TRUMP’S OBSESSION IS TAKING RESOURCES AWAY FROM FIGHTING FENTANYL, GUNS AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Recent USA Today reporting underscores how Trump’s anti-immigrant obsession knows no bounds, revealing that the administration has diverted thousands of DHS agents who have been working to combat fentanyl, guns and human traffickers, and ordering them to instead focus on his mass deportation agenda at the expense of public safety. Current and former officials “warn the shift will undermine high-profile investigations into some of the most dangerous transnational threats Americans face, including Mexican drug cartels smuggling deadly fentanyl across the border from Mexico,” USA Today’s Josh Meyer reported. “As the USA Today story makes clear, DHS agents have been diverted from combating real threats to public safety like the scourge of fentanyl, among other dangerous drugs, gun running and stopping human traffickers from conducting their evil trade,” Cárdenas reacted. “Instead, Trump is prioritizing a quid pro quo deal with the Mayor of New York over immigration, and spending millions on mindless anti-immigrant ads – all at taxpayer expense and real threats.” Read more here.
AN IMMIGRATION CRISIS FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that when it comes to the issue of immigration, Trump’s intention is not to resolve the problem but rather to create it while mounting a spectacle of cruelty for his followers. “If there is any doubt that Trump intends to generate chaos, recall that he eliminated programs implemented by the Democratic ex-president, Joe Biden, to lower the pressure and bring order to the border,” she writes. One process implemented by the former president permitted U.S. citizens to sponsor nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. This relief had a dual benefit of bringing increased order to the border and helping these migrants avoid the desperation that caused them to cross irregularly in the first place. But after taking office, Trump eliminated this program. “It’s that Trump ‘grows’ in the chaos that he provokes on purpose, to maintain a narrative and justify actions like indiscriminate detentions and deportations that are not focused only on people with criminal records, but on immigrants who have been established in the United States for decades,” Hastings concludes. Her column was also published in several outlets, including La Opinión, Radio Bilingüe, and La Tribuna Hispana. Read her column in English here and Spanish here.
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
“Border czar” Tom Homan has recently become obsessed with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), repeatedly questioning if Trump’s DOJ should investigate her for what he claims could be criminal behavior. What is it that has Homan in a twist? The fact that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez held a webinar educating her constituents on their legal rights when interacting with federal immigration agents. Let’s be clear: everyone present in the U.S., no matter their immigration status or who is currently president, has rights, and the right to know what they are. It’s extremely telling that Homan is now trying to spin this education into something suspicious. What actually is nefarious is that he doesn’t want people to know their rights, especially in light of reports that the administration has been sweeping up U.S. military vets and sending immigrants with no criminal record to the notorious Guantánamo Bay camp. “It is perfectly legal to know your rights and to educate others about them, too,” an undeterred Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said in response to Homan’s threats. “EVERYONE in the United States, citizen or not, has rights. I will not allow this administration to intimidate us from helping you know about them.” Read more here.
A CALL FOR COMPASSION
Leaders from a wide variety of faith traditions have been speaking out against the Trump administration’s cruel anti-immigrant agenda and offering important moral clarity at a moment of confusion and fear. Click here to watch and share our messaging standing with faith leaders and demanding dignity and respect for our immigrant neighbors.
VULNERABLE KIDS NEED OUR HELP
In one of its cruelest decisions yet, the Trump administration has ordered a halt to federally-funded legal services for unaccompanied migrant children, a decision that could rip attorneys from 26,000 kids and even force infants to have to go to immigration court alone. “This decision flies in the face of ensuring children who have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking have child-friendly legal representatives protecting their legal rights and interests,” Acacia Center for Justice Executive Director Shaina Aber responded. Immigration experts denounced the stop work order during a Wednesday press call, with advocates noting that past clients included a baby who was separated from a parent during Trump’s family separation crisis. The child was successfully reunited with his family through the unaccommodated children’s program, they said. “To see the same group of vulnerable children targeted again is the gravest injustice,” said Michigan Immigrant Rights Center Director Susan E. Reed. You can stand with these kids by using ACACIA’s easy tool to contact your member of Congress and demand a restoration to these life-saving services. Already, thousands of letters have been sent. Click here to add your voice and help defend kids.
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