MCALLEN — President Trump is today visiting McAllen, Texas as part of his continuing effort to pressure Congress to support his demand for a wall along the southern US border.
Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU Border Rights Center, had this reaction:
“The only border crisis is the one created by President Trump for political gain at the expense of the rights and the lives of migrants who have the right to seek asylum at the U.S. border. The crisis created by this administration also harms the people in our border communities, who have rallied to provide migrants with needed humanitarian aid and overwhelmingly oppose Trump's wall obsession.
“Additional barrier construction would devastate our homes and environment, result in massive land seizures by the federal government, and stand irreparably as a monument to hate and xenophobia. Trump’s repeated lies portraying the border as dangerous are racist and echo the rhetoric of white supremacy, not facts. His DHS's policies and misrepresentations of the border are hurting families and resulting in more deaths at the border.
“Congress, including border state Senators, must act consistently with good governance and public opinion and continue rejecting Trump’s wall extortion.”
Michael Seifert, border advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Texas, added:
“If the President were serious about his investigative trip to the Rio Grande Valley, he would take time to speak to people who live alongside the border wall. We would tell him that he has created a humanitarian crisis in our region that has terrorized our children, embarrassed us before the world, and threatens our region’s fragile economy. His hysteria and his lies about our region have made visitors afraid to come to some of the most beautiful and safest communities in the nation.
“A large, expensive border wall like the one President Trump has come to our community to promote will only hurt our communities. Congress should undertake robust oversight into DHS’s illegal actions at the border and refuse to give a raise to this rogue agency.”
