Human Rights Advocates Blast Trump’s Immigration Policy
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivered his long-awaited speech on immigration yesterday in Phoenix, Ariz. Hard on the heels of his meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump doubled down on his harsh immigration rhetoric vowing “no amnesty” for undocumented migrants living in the United States and promising to build a “beautiful” and “impenetrable” border wall that Mexico would pay for — hours after that country’s president vowed that it wouldn’t.
César J. Blanco, interim director of Latino Victory Fund, called Trump’s immigration speech “disgusting” in a statement released today. “Last night Donald Trump delivered yet another tired and disgusting speech. Trump, sounding like a broken record, delivered a constant, dehumanizing loop of anti-immigrant fear mongering. It’s fair to say that Trump’s “pivot” failed miserably, and that last night’s speech dug an even deeper hole for the GOP with Latinos.
“Instead of recognizing the countless contributions of immigrants to our country and supporting actual policies to bring millions of people out the shadows, Trump did exactly what we expected. He touted an inhumane mass deportation policy disguised to seem moderate and workable, again promised to build a wall, and vowed to end deferred action currently shielding DREAMers from deportation.
“Under a Trump administration every undocumented person in the United States would have to leave the country and then apply to return. Millions of immigrants would have to go through extreme vetting before they’re able to re-enter the United States – separating families, and tearing people apart from their communities and their homes.
“Trump’s 10-point plan is cruel, dangerous and terrifying, and would destroy the fabric of our country. It doesn’t pass the litmus test and we’ll make sure that Latinos aren’t fooled by this play of words.”
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund described Trump’s immigration policy as “terrible, inhumane and completely unfair.”
“Donald Trump’s so-called immigration policy is based on division and isolation — dividing vulnerable families with walls, literally and metaphorically, and isolating our nation from the talent that our economy requires to have a global edge. We need bipartisan, comprehensive, fair and humane immigration reform. This policy is comprehensively terrible, unfair and completely inhumane,” said Russell Roybal, deputy executive director, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund.
Trump has vowed to create a “deportation task force” within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division “focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens in America,” CNN reported. He said he would boost the ranks of enforcement agents to enforce existing laws. He vowed that any undocumented immigrants who are caught crossing into the US will be “detained until they are removed from our country” and sent back to their country of origin. And he promised to repeal President Barack Obama’s executive orders shielding some younger undocumented people, including those born in the United States — so called Dreamers, from deportation.
Trump left the fate of most of the 11 million undocumented people who are not criminals in the country murky.
“For those here today illegally who are seeking legal status,” Trump said. “They will have one route and only one route: to return home and apply for re-entry under the rules of the new legal immigration system.”