STATEMENT: ICIRR Responds to Trump Wall Funding Proposal
CHICAGO (January 19, 2019)--The following is a statement by Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Executive Director Lawrence Benito in response to the Trump administration's immigration proposal:
“The administration's proposal is nothing more than using immigrants and government employees as bargaining chips to meet the widely unpopular demands of the racists in the White House to continue to set aside significant amounts of money for cruel enforcement priorities. Trump is dead set on tearing immigrant families apart and keeping kids and families locked behind bars. This is a down payment on the White House's belief that brown people belong on one side, and white people belong on the other.
“Immigrant serving communities spoke loud and clear against this type of proposal that began being broadcasted by the business community before Trump made this announcement. What follows is an open letter to the members of the Illinois delegation calling them to reject this very type of proposal. Our position has not changed.”
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January 18, 2019
To the Members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation:
The undersigned organizations represent the immigrant communities whom you represent in Congress. Our communities are strong because of families, who came from across the world to seek opportunity and build a life in Illinois. For the last two years, our communities have faced a barrage of attacks under this current Administration. Like all Americans, our communities are now dealing with the impact of the partial government shutdown, an impasse that the White House created by insisting on funding for a wall on our southern border.
Our organizations and our communities overwhelmingly oppose a border wall--as do the majority of Americans. The White House itself seems to recognize how unpopular its insistence on the wall and the resulting shutdown have proven. Our communities also oppose any deal that would include a border wall even if it includes protections for immigrants benefiting from (and losing protections under) the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). These immigrants do not want to benefit from any deal that still leaves at risk of deportation their parents, their neighbors, their classmates, and other members of their communities. Such a deal would separate still more families, on top of all the families this Administration has already torn apart at the border and elsewhere.
For these reasons, we strongly reject calls by organizations like the American Business Immigration Coalition urging Congress to accept a deal exchanging wall funding for DACA and TPS protections. ABIC and others who would accept such a deal do not represent our communities, do not speak for our communities, and have no accountability to our communities. Furthermore, the November election results show that ABIC is out of step with a majority of American voters and in particular our vulnerable immigrant communities, many of whom were mobilized to vote by the undersigned organizations. ABIC’s position merely caves in to the White House’s political blackmail, providing cover for it to score a political win to placate its white nationalist base while sustaining its attacks on immigrant families. No win for Trump can be a win for immigrants.
We urge you, as our elected representatives in Congress, to listen to the people and communities you represent, the immigrants and their families and neighbors who are directly affected by our federal immigration policies, and the organizations that serve them and to which they are accountable. We remind you that you are accountable to us, your residents, and not to those who are willing to do harm to vulnerable community members. Finally, we urge you to reject any deal involving this Administration’s proposal for a wasteful and ineffectual border wall and to instead insist on real solutions for the 11 million people who are undocumented due to our failed immigration system and for our entire nation.
Signed,
Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment
Arab American Action Network
Arab American Family Services
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Cambodian Association of Illinois
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos
Centro Romero
Champaign-Urbana Immigration Forum
Chicago Community and Workers' Rights
Chicago Religious Leadership Network
Citizen Action/Illinois
Communities United
Confederacion de Migrantes Guanajuatenses en Estados Unidos
Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago
Durango Unido en Chicago
Enlace Chicago
Family Focus
FEDECMI / USA
Federación de Chihuahua
Federación de Clubes y Lideres de Guanajuato
Federación de Hidalguenses en Illinois
Forward Illinois
Grassroots Collaborative
HANA Center
Hanul Family Alliance
Hispanic American Community Education & Services
Illinois Association of Agencies and Community Organizations for Migrant Advocacy
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Illinois Immigrant Action
Immigration Project
Indo-American Center
Instituto del Progreso Latino
Irish Community Services
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Latino Organization of the Southwest
Latino Policy Forum
Local 881 UFCW
Logan Square Neighborhood Association
Mano-A-Mano Family Resource Center
Mujeres Latinas en Accion
National Immigrant Justice Center
New American Welcoming Center at the University YMCA
Northern Alliance for Immigrants
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors
Northside Community Resources
Organized Communities Against Deportation
Pan-African Association
PASO- West Suburban Action Project
Planned Parenthood of Illinois
Project IRENE
Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees
Reintegrate
SEIU Healthcare
SEIU Local 1
Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter
South-East Asia Center
Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project
Spanish Community Center
United African Organization
United Electrical Western Region
United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO)