On February 15, 2019, President Trump declared a national emergency in an attempt to build a border wall. In response, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) released the following statement:
There is no national emergency. What we have is a President who is willing to manufacture a border crisis in order to back his anti-immigrant policies.
The Trump Administration is separating families and dividing communities with fear. It has tried to strip tens of thousands of people of TPS, creating a chilling effect on workers who suffer abuse. These are direct attacks on vulnerable populations and on all of us. These are our real problems, which have been single-handedly created by this Administration.
Beyond being a vanity project, “the wall” exemplifies the Administration’s complete disregard for a rights-based approach to immigration policy.
Instead of spending time and resources manufacturing a national emergency and building a wall, our government should be focusing on an immigration reform that respects families and communities.