Washington, DC – Following last week’s tragic shooting of two National Guard members, resulting in the death of National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, this administration cited the horrific incident as justification for a new set of immigration restrictions and crackdowns. As USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in announcing a halt to asylum case processing: “The safety of the American people always comes first.”
Yet through the lens of the safety of Americans, the administration’s ongoing mass deportation agenda is harming, not helping, to advance public safety.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director, America’s Voice:
“America needs leaders who will work to bridge divides and focus on keeping all our communities safe. Trump’s mass deportation crusade does the exact opposite, fueling chaos, paranoia and violence.
How does it make the American people safer to deploy masked ICE and CBP agents in American communities? Analysis of Chicago’s chaotic and violent Operation Midway Blitz finds that only 120 of the more than 4,000 related arrests were of individuals with a criminal record – despite the supposed focus and justification stated by the administration.
How does it make the American people safer to divert DHS agents and federal resources away from efforts to combat such threats as child exploitation and abuse, human trafficking and terrorism and toward mass deportation efforts? For example, drug arrests and gun seizures have plummeted this year as money and manpower has been shifted to support Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
How does it make the American people safer to rapidly deport a Boston-area college freshman to Honduras – a country she hasn’t lived in since she was a young child? The story of 19-year-old Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, detained before boarding a flight to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, it is cruel and outrageous.
How does it make the American people safer to be splitting apart families and detaining the spouses of U.S. citizens at green card interviews ‘when they report for the final step to obtain permanent residency,’ per a New York Times report?
The reality is that this administration’s escalating mass deportation agenda makes us weaker, poorer and less safe, while dividing us at a moment that demands common-sense and national unity.”
