The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) wholly rejects the Trump administration’s October 8 “Immigration Principles and Policies” document. We urge Congress to uphold American values and the rights of immigrants as it debates a path forward to secure protections for 800,000 members of our communities who are losing protection as a result of the Trump administration’s elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Our elected officials must not be complicit in advancing a legislative and policy agenda that is based in lies and anti-immigrant tropes aimed at the administration’s increasingly narrow support base. Lives are in the balance, and the majority of Americans desire durable, realistic, and humane solutions to fix our outdated immigration system.
The ideas in the White House document, though disgraceful, are not new. Explicitly nativist and extremist anti-immigrant politicians have put forth these proposals for decades. It is no surprise the document is reported to have been penned by Stephen Miller, White House senior policy advisor, who has a history of openly embracing white nationalism.
Furthermore, the president’s principles run contrary to U.S. constitutional and statutory law.
To provide legal and historical context for these proposals, NIJC’s legal staff have annotated the language from the White House’s original document to note some (although not all, by far) of its most glaring falsehoods and proposed illegalities. View the annotated document.
Act Now: Let Congress know that Americans reject the Trump administration’s anti-American agenda. Call on members of Congress to pass a “clean” DREAM Act that offers protection to DACA recipients and upholds the human rights of all immigrants. Take action here.