Statement by National Immigrant Justice Center Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy

The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) condemns the Trump administration’s human rights abuses toward parents and children who have fled to the United States to seek asylum.

Under the president's new executive order, the administration intends to continue to prosecute any asylum seeker who enters the United States outside a port of entry, and to indefinitely detain those who request protection at ports of entry. As long as prosecutions continue, parents and families will remain at risk of separation. The administration also intends to attempt to roll back the child welfare protections that have been in place under a decades-old federal court order.

Americans must keep fighting to end inhumane detention once and for all. NIJC calls on Congress to cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration detention system and stop spending Americans’ tax dollars to terrorize children and families.

Take Action: Tell Congress to #DefundHate and cut spending on the DHS immigration detention system