UUSC Condemns Policy Separating Families, House Immigration Bill

Media Contacts:
Jan Dragin, Dragin Communications, jdragin[@]gmail.com, 24/7 at (339) 236-0679
Mike Givens, UUSC, mgivens[@]uusc.org, (857) 540-0617

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass./WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tuesday, June 19, 2018 — Today, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) warns that the U.S. administration’s zero tolerance policy of criminalizing and separating immigrant families at the southern border and warehousing children are policies that must stop—but cautions that those policies are part of a more ominous plan reflected in pending legislation in the House of Representatives.

UUSC Vice President and Chief Program Officer Rachel Gore Freed said, “The so-called House compromise bill that’s up for a vote this week is a Trojan horse. It will fail to end the administration’s heinous family separation policy and warehousing of children.”

Freed said the compromise bill would further militarize the border, continue to restrict lawful immigration, and dismantle avenues for asylum seekers to find protection.

As experts have pointed out, those provisions also mean that the family separation policy could easily continue under this bill.

“It’s the zero tolerance policy that’s the major source of the current wave of family separations, in that unauthorized border crossers are considered felons and detained in prisons where children can’t be housed.”

More directly, Freed said, “UUSC is calling for the House to abandon efforts to pass the compromise Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018. The bill fails to address family separation and would make the U.S. immigration system even more unjust. The goal remains to continue this nation’s provision of fair access to asylum and to end our destabilizing presence in Central America so people can stay home.”

“Family separation isn’t a law. It’s a policy. President Trump and others have incorrectly maintained that they are obliged to separate families by law. The Ryan bill announced last week promotes this lie,” added Freed. “Trump and Sessions can stop criminally prosecuting asylum seekers and separating parents and children at any time.”

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For more than 75 years UUSC has advanced human rights and social justice around the world, partnering with those who confront unjust power structures and mobilizing to challenge oppressive policies.