LOS ANGELES, CA, Jan. 8, 2019 – The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the largest immigrant right organization in California, said Tuesday President Donald Trump is so desperate to get money for an ineffective and costly wall at the border that he is willing to pitch a temper tantrum, manufacture a national security emergency, and lie to the American people on prime time.
Below are statements from CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas:
President Trump is no stranger to alternative facts, but manufacturing a crisis at the border, shutting down the government, lying on prime time to the American public, and executing a power grab just to build a medieval, ineffective wall is too much. Clearly, the leader of the free world is living in an unhinged, alternative universe.
The real and immediate crisis here is the separation of toddlers from their parents, the jailing of boys and girls in desert camps, the tear-gassing of women and families, and the gutting of immigration laws that permit legal entry to the United States. President Trump’s cruel immigration policies are the true cause of the humanitarian crisis facing immigrant families and refugees.
Congress must stop President Trump’s gambit to build an unnecessary wall and vote to reopen the government. Not one more dollar should be used to fund this testament to stupidity based on groundless arguments that will turn the U.S. Department of Defense into a wall construction contractor.
President Trump is overreaching again in trying to appease his anti-immigrant, white supremacist base, basking in the chaos of his irresponsible words, all the while ignoring the pain and suffering the shutdown imposes on 880,000 federal workers, and wasting precious opportunities to govern intelligently, with integrity and honor.