People rally against U.S. immigration policies
CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. » On Thursday, hundreds of people across New York state rallied and spoke out in protest of the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.
This new round of protests follows a June 1 day of action which was a response to families being separated at the border and of children being put in detention.
Citizen Action of New York, New York Civil Liberties Union, Saratoga Progressive Action, and Saratoga Unites organized actions in Albany and Glens Falls.
Families Belong Together, who are spearheading this series of nationwide events, have put out the following statement: “As parents, it is unconscionable that the U.S. government is actively tearing apart immigrant families. They are victims of violence, hunger, and poverty and our government’s actions re-violate them, causing untold damage. Children as young as 18 months are torn from their mothers’ arms by our own government. This is violent abuse and as concerned citizens and voters we state, unequivocally, that this is not in line with American values. We op-
pose the inhumane policies of the Trump Administration, Border Patrol, ICE, and other federal immigration agencies. We are disheartened by the lack of leadership in Congress whose job is to be a check on the federal government when it overreaches and abuses its power. We are calling for immediate reforms and an end to this barbarism.”
Thursday’s demonstrations took place outside the Leo W. O’Brien Federal Building in Albany and the Glens Falls district office of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro.
“Separating parents from their children — especially those who have experienced violence and trauma — is the ultimate form of cruelty. We demand an end to the abuses of ICE and Border Patrol, and for the Trump Administration to recognize the humanity and dignity of all people, no matter where they were born,” said Jamaica Miles, the lead organizer of Citizen Action of New York.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited the Bible on Thursday in his defense of his border policy that is resulting in hundreds of immigrant children being separated from their parents after they enter the U.S. illegally.
Sessions, speaking in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on immigration, pushed back against criticism he had received over the policy.
On Wednesday, a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church said that separating mothers from their babies was “immoral.”
Sessions said many of the recent criticisms were not “fair or logical and some are contrary to law.”
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” he said. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”
Last month, the attorney general announced a “zero tolerance” policy that any adult who enters the country illegally is criminally prosecuted. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining children with their parents because the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 650 children were separated from their parents at the U.S.Mexico border during a two-week period in May.
Sessions’ comments came as House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans said they were not comfortable with family separations, which spiked dramatically after the Justice Department adopted a policy in April of referring all illegal border crossers for prosecution.
“We don’t want kids to be separated from their parents,” Ryan said Thursday.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., tweeted Thursday that he told a constituent that, “I am asking the White House to keep families together as much as we can.”
In an unusually tense series of exchanges in the White House briefing room, Sanders blamed Democrats for the policy separating children from parents and wrongly insisted the administration had made no changes increasing the tactics’ use.
“The separation of illegal alien families is the product of the same legal loopholes that Democrats refuse to close and these laws are the same that have been on the books for over a decade, and the president is simply enforcing them,” she said.
Shannon Heesacker McClain, the national coordinator for Families Belong Together, said the practice of separating families “are not only cruel, they can cause serious trauma for both children and their parents.”
Rabbi Linda Motzkin of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs said, “The moral fiber of a society is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable among us. The Bible exhorts us, in various wordings, to refrain from exploitation of others, to love the stranger or alien in our midst as ourselves. The inhumane treatment of immigrant children and their parents that we are now witnessing in our country is a shameful indictment of our society and an indication of how far we have fallen from the standards we are called upon to uphold.”