For Immediate Release: Oct. 24, 2018
Contact: Erin Williams, ewilliams@faithinaction.org
WASHINGTON – Leaders with Faith in Action, the nation’s largest network of faith-based groups and congregations, today called on President Trump and his administration to end the politicization of children and women fleeing violence in Central America. The faith group found it ironic that immediately after criticizing the children and families who are mostly Latino, President Trump would declare himself a nationalist, a term that has been embraced by white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers.
“Days prior to declaring his opposition to human beings seeking a better life in the United States, President Trump today publicly affirmed what many of us have wondered privately: that he is sympathetic to white supremacists,” said the Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, director of clergy organizing for Faith in Action. “Our faith commands us to love and see all people, regardless of their place of birth, as human beings. We are 100 percent at odds with President Trump’s message of hate and xenophobia.”
“Calling yourself a “nationalist” is just a nice way of saying white supremacist. With the midterms just two weeks away the president is trying to provoke fears in white voters of a non-existent brown invasion,” said Richard Morales, campaign director for Faith in Action’s LA RED campaign. “He is making up a crisis in hopes of not only getting his base out to vote but to pressure congress for billions of dollars for more border militarization, deportation agents and immigrant detention beds. Attacking the Central American migrants, dog whistling that terrorist have joined the caravan, while declaring himself a nationalist plainly shows he will go to any length to stir up hate in the nation. While net migration to the United States has been down since 2005, a country that prides itself as being a religious nation should never turn their back of women, children and families who are walking hundreds of miles in search of a safe harbor.”
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Faith in Action, formerly known as PICO National Network, is the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States. The nonpartisan organization works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 46 local and state federations. For more information visit www.faithinaction.org.
