Trump's Executive Orders Match Campaign Bigotry

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.