Junta for Progressive Action, Inc. Statement on the Executive Order of March 6, 2017

[Sandra Trevino]

MEDIA RELEASE

CONTACT: 

Sandra Trevino, Executive Director

[phone] or [e-mail]

 

 

                      

Junta for Progressive Action, Inc. Statement on the Executive Order of March 6, 2017:

We reject the new ban on Muslim migrants and refugees and pledge to fight it.

 

Junta joins communities across the United States in rejecting the Trump administration’s initiative to sow anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic hatred in this country. The Executive Order of March 6, 2017 bars entry to travelers and migrants from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen for 90 days, suspends refugee resettlement for 120 days, and lowers the number of refugees granted admission from 110,000 to 50,000 - all without justification. This new order seeks to redeem the irredeemable design of the January 27 order, which was universally repudiated as unconstitutional and unnecessary.  Refugees are already subject to the most rigorous forms of vetting in the U.S., which delays their access to resettlement in the U.S. by at least two years.  Rather than make our communities more secure, the ban provides sanction for religious and ethnic discrimination and will leave thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers in desperate conditions. This is both unethical and dangerous policy, which will only undermine U.S. global interests, and place our country at variance with global human rights norms.

 

In New Haven, we remain committed to providing refuge to those displaced by war, social violence, and poverty. We denounce any policy that converts people of Islamic faith into suspect populations. As we affirm our connection to peoples of all nations, we also commit to defending those among us who have suffered racist and xenophobic assaults as a result of the increased climate of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment. We call on Congressional leaders to reverse this discriminatory ban, and to uphold our country’s commitment to refugee resettlement.  At the same time, we recommit ourselves to achieving just and humane immigration reform.

 

Good governance does not rely on border walls and exclusionary measures. We need an immigration and refugee policy made to the measure of an interconnected world. Through immigrants, we find our connections to a global society; and in our shared struggles, we build safer, more resilient communities at home.

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