In a quickly-organized phone conference on Thursday, January 12, leaders from several immigrant and civil rights organizations came together to decry President Trump’s recent remarks, in which he referred to Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries” during a meeting with U.S. senators, according to the Washington Post.
The civil rights leaders said that, in light of these remarks, it is even more important for Congress to pass the Dream Act – which would provide a path to citizenship for thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children – before the January 19 federal government funding deadline.
“All of us wish that we did not have to have today’s discussion,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Civil Right Division in President Obama’s Department of Justice. “But let me begin by condemning, in the strongest terms, the president’s words.”
“These comments fall perfectly in line with Trump’s disregard and disrespect for people of the African diaspora,” said Jonathan Jayes-Green, co-founder and director of Undocublack Network, an advocacy organization for undocumented immigrants of African descent.
The other organizers on the call agreed that these remarks were in line with the intent behind many of Trump’s previous remarks, and his actions, such as threatening to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and removing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for immigrants from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and now El Salvador.
The status of many immigration programs, such as DACA, is up in the air as of now. Over 600,000 immigrants were protected by DACA as of September 2017, though it is unclear what that number is now.
Additionally, the Trump administration has announced that they will be removing TPS protections for people from El Salvador. Until those who have come to the United States from El Salvador without documentation were protected from deportation, on the grounds that their home country could be unsafe for them if they returned.
The organizers said that in response to Trump’s remarks, Congress has a moral obligation to do something to protect immigrants from what Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, called “a racial purge that this president is calling for.”
In the same meeting where Trump referred to Africa and Haiti as “shithole countries,” he wondered why the U.S. does not admit more immigrants from Norway, whose population is almost entirely white.
“His policies on TPS and DACA would remove over a million people from this country, mostly people of color,” Dianis said. “Those are his targets. So the question to Congress is: Whose side are you on?”
Dianis quoted Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” She said that in making these racist remarks, Trump showed us who he is. She noted that as we approach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump’s comments are “insulting” to Dr. King’s legacy and the principles he espoused.
Clarissa Martínez-de-Castro of UnidosUS, the largest Latino advocacy group in the U.S., said that Congress must pass the Dream Act before the government shutdown date of January 19 – or be complicit in Trump’s blatantly racist policies.
“There is no grey area here,” Martínez-de-Castro said. She said a failure to pass the Dream Act would mean “continuing to be complicit in the maligning of Latino and black communities regardless of immigration status, and there is no amount of hand-wringing or excuses that can cover that up.”
