Administration Uses Immigrant Youth As Bargaining Chip Advancing Justice Says Congress Cannot Allow Trading of Immigrants’ Lives
San Francisco, C.A. — October 9, 2017 — On Sunday, the Trump administration released a list of reprehensible immigration policy demands that threaten pending legislation in Congress to offer a path to citizenship to over a million undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.
The Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliation, a group of five civil rights organizations, issue the following statement today:
“Once again, the administration is advancing its white supremacist agenda with the release of immigration demands that seek to use DACA recipients as a bargaining chip in order to fulfill its extreme anti-immigrant agenda. The administration is demanding a comprehensive anti-immigrant wish list that includes getting funding approval for the border wall and a new army of immigration agents, cutting immigration in half — including ending family immigration — reducing refugees and making asylum much more difficult, bringing back indefinite detention, going after sanctuary cities, and increasing local participation in immigration enforcement, among many other provisions.
Only a month after ending the DACA program and meeting with Congressional leaders on a possible deal for DACA recipients, the administration is holding hostage 800,000 lives while putting other immigrants at greater risk for deportation. Congress cannot let the administration continue to demonize immigrants, hold others in detention indefinitely, and criminalize undocumented immigrants to further its un-American agenda.
Congress needs to pass a clean DREAM Act, legislation that would provide DACA recipients with a path to citizenship and does not trade away the lives of undocumented immigrants and refugees. The vast majority of Americans support the DREAM Act, which has bipartisan support in Congress.
Advancing Justice urges Congress to hold steadfast against this latest assault on immigration. We cannot bend to an anti-immigrant agenda that is driven by hate and divisiveness.”
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Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice | AAJC (Washington, DC), Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco), Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, and Advancing Justice – Chicago.