The following statement was submitted by
Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
This week, President Trump is signing a
flurry of executive orders that enact policies matching the ugly bigotry and
xenophobia of his campaign.
Yesterday, he signed an order to begin
building a wall between the United States and Mexico. A second order seeks to
punish "sanctuary cities" that refuse to use local police as federal
immigration enforcers out of concern that it would hamper law enforcement.
Trump's orders are certain to thrill his
most avid supporters.
But like the skyscrapers that bear his
name, the border wall will be nothing more than a monument to Trump's vanity.
And it will be a testament to Congress's failure to enact meaningful
immigration reform. It will waste billions of dollars at a time when more
unauthorized Mexican immigrants are leaving our country than arriving.
Trump is expected to soon double down by
signing another order suspending the admission of refugees and temporarily
banning people from some Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
The truth is, it's a shameful state of
affairs.
Instead of upholding fundamental
American values, Trump is enacting policies that amount to state-sanctioned
bigotry and divide people along racial, ethnic and religious lines. We're a
better country than that.
It's up to all of us to push back
against hate and bigotry.
No comments:
Post a Comment