Commentary: Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order putting and end to family separation for migrant families crossing the southern border while seeking asylum.
The move comes after a constant demand and outrage from the public, faith communities, and immigrants’ rights organization who called the separation of children from their parents cruel, inhumane, and immoral.
So far, close to 2,000 immigrant children seeking asylum have been separated from their parents since the “zero-tolerance” policy was first announced by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session early April.
While the executive order ends family separation, the federal government will continue to carry out a mass incarceration agenda of migrants crossing the border –even while seeking asylum. The caging of families indefinitely, while facing criminal prosecution, constitutes a humanitarian crisis that must be brought to a halt.
Gabriela Hernandez, DACA beneficiary, executive director of NM Dream Team, said,
“If we have learned anything from this situations is that again and again Donald Trump continues to lies to the American public. He constantly blamed and deflected any responsibility from the separation of families that he caused by saying only Congress could stop a crisis he and the Dept. of Justice created.
“The truth remains that this executive order does not put an end to the incarceration of asylum seekers at the border. Now we face again families being held in detention indefinitely only due to fleeing violence and poverty, caused by the long history of U.S. interventions in all of Central and South America.
“We continue to call on Congress to work on a permanent legislative solution to reform our immigration system that does not criminalize immigrant families or further militarize our borders but rather allows communities to thrive and live without fear”.
Johana Saenz, border resident, immigrant single mom from Las Cruces, NM and deportation defense leader with the NM Dream Team, said:
“As a border resident and single mother of three children, I experience the fear provoked by the constant presence of ICE & CBP in our communities, who we also know have a long history of abuse, violence and impunity against our families and loved ones.
“Ending family separation continues to represent only the tip of the iceberg which is the mass hunting and persecution of immigrant families nationwide carried out by the federal government through the out of control agencies, ICE and CBP.
“As Congress considers a vote on two dangerous anti-immigrant proposals which they have masked with the name of “DACA fix”, we demand our Congress Members to oppose any legislation that further militarizes my border community or adds funding for the agencies carrying out atrocities against immigrant youth and families.
“At the border and across the country we say ENOUGH! Let’s bring an end to immigrant detention and to the profiting off of suffering families. Sign our petition today and let’s make sure to defund these two agencies: unitedwedream.org/defund”
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Follow the NM Dream Team on Twitter:@NM_Dream_Team and on Facebook:@NewMexicoDreamTeam
The New Mexico Dream Team is a statewide network committed to create power for multigenerational, undocumented, and mixed status families through trainings and leadership development. We work to engage our community and allies in becoming leaders using an intersectional, gender, and racial justice lens—to develop and implement an organizing and advocacy infrastructure for policy change fighting to dismantle systemic oppression.
United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, a powerful nonpartisan network made up of 55 affiliate organizations in 26 states. UWD organizes and advocates for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status. We seek to address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and believe that by empowering immigrant youth, we can advance the cause of the entire community—justice for all immigrants.