A recording of today’s call is available here.
After another tumultus week on immigration in Washington, leaders from United We Dream, UndocuBlack Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and the Women’s Refugee Commission analyzed the White House immigration principles, the state of the federal immigration debate, and the next steps. A recording of today’s call is available here.
Andrea Guerrero, Director of Alliance San Diego and Co-chair of Southern Border Communities Coalition, said:
We represent 15 million people who call the southern border region home. Our community is full of people, parks, monuments, and a bustling economy, all of which would be negatively impacted by further militarization of the border. We are not opposed to enforcement, but we are opposed to enforcement that doesn’t take into account the people of the area and the disastrous impact it would make. It’s not abstract for us, it’s not about the money. It’s about the impact to the region, people, and natural resources.
Jonathan Jayes-Green, DACA-recipient and Director, UndocuBlack Network, said:
The proposed plan is a disgusting attempt to whiten the composition of this country under the facade of supporting undocumented young people. As a DACA recipient and a person of conscience, I wholeheartedly reject this atrocious framework and call on others to do the same.
Greisa Martinez Rosas, DACA-recipient and Public Advocacy Director, United We Dream, said:
The immigration proposal presented yesterday by the Trump White House is nothing more than a white supremacist ransom note. Trump and his staff like Stephen Miller created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and work towards a breakthrough that their own immigrant ancestors would approve of.
Katharina Obser, Senior Policy Advisor, Women’s Refugee Commission, said:
Women’s Refugee Commission firmly believes in the need to protect the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who are an integral part of communities around the United States. However, no deal on immigration should trade the lives of one group of vulnerable individuals for another. Children and adults escaping violence are not exploiting so-called “loopholes,” nor do they pose a threat to border security. Instead, they are desperate to find safety and fairness in an immigration process they have a legal right to access. Gutting those protections in the name of border security does not make America any safer, nor our borders more secure.
John C. Yang, President & Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, said:
We stand together with the Dreamers, TPS recipients, and diversity lottery recipients against the administration’s proposal. For us, this proposal is a non-starter. Quite simply, it decimates the family immigration system that has made this country so dynamic, so innovative, and so diverse. The country cannot return to a time when immigration policies only favor White European immigrants.
