FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 5, 2019
Contact: Gebe Martinez | gebe.GMNetworking@gmail.com | 703-731-9505
“Let us never forget that until our nation restores values that respect the dignity of worth of every human being, the state of our union will never be morally sound.”
WASHINGTON, DC — The United States is in a state of moral crisis, largely due to the president’s inhumane agenda of hate against immigrants that is being carried out by the Trump administration, said Richard Morales, policy and program director for Faith in Action’s immigrants’ rights campaign, LA RED.
The following is a statement by Morales:
“It is difficult to take seriously Trump’s calls for unity when he is largely responsible for elevating political and rhetorical attacks against immigrants, whether they have lived in the U.S. for years or are trying to seek refuge from violence and apply for asylum.
“Determined to build an arrogant border wall to serve as a monument to himself, Trump continues demonizing immigrants and speaking of border violence in hyperbolic terms to justify his hate agenda. There is absolutely no justification for Trump to formally declare a ‘national state of emergency’ along the southern border.
“Let us never forget that, until our nation restores values that respect the dignity of worth of every human being, the state of our union will never be morally sound.
“Not only is the wall immoral, so is the continued expansion of border militarization, mass detention and mass deportation machine. Congress must defund hate and violence against immigrants and invest the money in the betterment of our communities, such as education, health care and creation of jobs.
“As a member of the Defund Hate coalition, we make these demands of Congress because we have seen first-hand the disasters created by the Trump administration. The images from last year, alone, have not been forgotten: children crying as they are separated from parents and then warehoused in cages; mothers and children being tear-gassed; reports of adults and children dying while in custody and of thousands of children permanently lost from their families because the government did not try to reunite them; a father being arrested inside a courtroom as advocates demanded but received no explanations.
“We also think of Rosa Gutierrez Lopez, mother of three U.S. citizen children and an asylum seeker, who took sanctuary at a Maryland church after being threatened with deportation because she wants to fight to remain with her children and this country that she loves.
“Again, we urge Congress to hold the administration accountable, stop this deadly abuse, and defund the hate agenda. Deploying additional law enforcement, immigration enforcement agencies, or military personnel to the southern border endangers the rights of migrants and residents of border communities and does nothing to make us safer.”
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Hashtags: #DefundHate #SOTU #FaithOverFear
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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.
