Denver CO – CIRC issued the following response as more details emerge about the Congressional deal to fund DHS and Trump’s border wall:
Nicole Melaku CIRC Executive Director said:
“We are saddened and deeply angry to hear that a deal has been reached on the backs of immigrants and working families across the country. The President insists on his wall and most likely will settle with Congress on a downpayment for the 1.3 billion dollars for a wall that is nothing more than a symbol of his racist anti-immigrant agenda.
Enough is enough. It is time for the attacks on our families to stop. Everyday, rogue agents from the Department of Homeland Security terrorize families, separating children from parents, wives from husbands and brothers from sisters. DHS needs to have real limits on the detention and separation of families.
Donald Trump’s fixation on his vanity wall and detaining immigrants en mass are a humanitarian tragedy driven by divisive fear-based tactics and lies. We expect and demand that our members of Congress to do the right thing, keep the government open and continue the 2019 budget appropriations process with the ideals of dignity and access to due process for immigrants, asylum, and Dreamers and TPS holders .
Instead, we should focus on what really matters: Bold progressive solutions to our outdated immigration system that strengthens equal opportunity, treats immigrant families with respect and dignity, and keeps families together and free.
Anything short of that is a disgraceful display of partisan posturing, back-door deal-making on the backs of the lives of the people they were elected to serve.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) is a statewide, membership-based coalition of immigrant, faith, labor, youth, community, business and ally organizations founded in 2002 to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees by making Colorado a more welcoming, immigrant-friendly state. CIRC achieves this mission through non-partisan civic engagement, public education, and advocating for workable, fair and humane immigration policies.