Community leaders react to Trump's executive action

Trump’s Executive Order: Retreat and Misdirection   Executive order does not end indefinite detentions for families, children 

By Camila Gallardo

WASHINGTON, D.C.—UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía issued the following the statement in reaction to Trump’s executive order: 

“Let’s recognize what happened. First, President Trump admitted he was lying and his administration was misleading the American people when he blamed anybody but himself for this cruel and barbaric policy. This executive order is proof that traumatizing children by taking them away from their parents is his policy and that despite a lot of nonsense claiming otherwise, he was able to end it. Second, it was the overwhelming outrage and immense pressure from the Latino, immigrant rights, civil rights, and human rights communities, and of people of good will and good conscience in this country who were sickened by this violation of common decency and our common American values, that forced the president’s hand.

“We need to keep this outrage and pressure going. Despite being rebuked by nearly everyone, the president issued an executive order that is nearly all misdirection. We cannot allow the barbaric and un-American treatment of those seeking refuge from violence and persecution to continue by other means such as indefinite detention of families and storing these families in military installations. Today proved we could fight back, but we need to keep fighting until we get a real, fair, and humane immigration solution.

“Republicans in the House of Representatives, who are due to vote on a series of partisan immigration bills, have a choice to make: will they become enablers of this immoral policy and an extreme anti-immigrant agenda, or will they fight for real solutions and America’s ideals? UnidosUS calls on members of Congress to reject these divisive measures, including those that provide billions in funding for a wall that won’t work, and for a mass deportation force to place even more children in detention. These policies run contrary to our core values as a nation and it is why the overwhelming majority of the American people have rejected them.”  

Ask Congress to help immigrant families at the Border

By Lorella Praeli
ACLU Director of Immigration Policy and Campaigns

Yesterday Donald Trump signed an executive order that he claims will end family separation at the border. The reality is that it may not stop separating families, will not reunite the thousands of families already torn apart, and aims to lock up even more children and families. Our movement is so powerful that we've managed to shame Trump into action, but this crisis is far from over.

Now Trump is calling on Congress to help him put children and their parents into mass prison camps – indefinitely. This is his unspeakably cruel "solution" to family separation.

In the House, Speaker Paul Ryan is working to pass a bill today that would sanction mass immigrant family detention and give Trump a Congressional greenlight on his brutal anti-immigrant agenda.

You play a crucial role in our fight, ACLU Supporter. And our jobs aren't done – make a call today to stop Congress from passing a law that puts families in prison camps.

Ryan's bill is designed to imprison families. It uses the end of family separation to justify dismantling protections against the jailing of children and families in mass prison camps. It will turbocharge immigration enforcement and it contains Donald Trump's personal anti-immigrant wish list, border wall and all.

Here's what you can do right now: Today, the House is voting on Speaker Ryan's immigration bill. Just like Trump's executive order, this bill is holding immigrant children hostage to push forward intolerable family detention – and a slew of other anti-immigrant policies that undermine the Constitution and due process.

Ryan's bill is NOT a solution, but it could still get the votes it needs to pass. Call your representative right now and demand that they vote against Ryan's bill.

ACLU Supporter, we're in this fight for the long-haul – and we're fighting on all fronts: We're suing the Trump administration to bring a permanent end to family separation. We're giving Congress no choice but to block the Ryan bill and refuse to give one cent to immigrant-abusing agencies like ICE. We will bear witness to the horrors of family separation and detention. We will raise our voices so loud that this issue is kept front and center until every single family is reunited.