UnidosUS Statement on President Trump’s Attempts to Release Detained Migrants into Sanctuary Cities

April 12, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, news reports indicate that President Trump pressured immigration authorities to release undocumented migrants in detention into sanctuary cities to target political opponents. UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) President and CEO Janet Murguía, issued the following statement:

“President Trump’s attempts to release detained migrants into sanctuary cities are beyond reprehensible. It seems that not only is President Trump attempting to utilize human beings, who have already experienced a traumatic situation, as tools to get back at political foes, but as a vehicle to further divide communities by stoking racial tensions. The move would create even further chaos than what we are already witnessing at the border and in communities across the United States where immigrant families are being torn apart by Trump’s damaging and ineffective immigration policies.

It is heartbreaking to think that families who are escaping violence and uncertainty in their home countries would then be used by our own government to fuel the president’s agenda of intolerance and create tensions and further confusion in our nation’s cities. This isn’t just beneath the office of the president, this is beyond anything we would expect from anyone holding public office. He has dehumanized migrants to a point where he sees them as disposable pawns in a game. It is clear that the president isn’t just incapable of coming up with sound immigration solutions, he’s deliberately creating chaos and promoting racial tensions to further divide the country.”