News > Press Releases
We Need Welcome, Not Wall, at the Border
Posted on Jan 09 2019
President Trump’s statements last night revealed a position that is morally bankrupt, and a political ploy based on racist, anti-immigrant policies that this administration has consistently pursued. The crisis at the border is a humanitarian crisis, not one of national security, and that crisis was largely created by the policies of this administration.
“As an attorney who works every day with immigrants I am deeply concerned about the president’s appeals to fear and misstatements of facts about our southern border,” said Margaret Martin, legal director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “Immigrants are a strong and important part of our nation. We need to recognize the contributions they make, from artists and Nobel Prize-winning scientists to health care workers providing the care that enables seniors to stay in their own homes. Fostering anti-immigrant prejudice harms all Americans.”
For weeks leading up to Tuesday’s presidential speech, members of the administration have been making false and misleading statements about immigrants and the imaginary threats they pose. Speaking from the Oval Office, the president continued to appeal to fear and prejudice. He continues to insist on a government shutdown unless he is granted a border wall that will destroy private property rights, create environmental damage, cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and ultimately accomplish no useful purpose.
We do not need a border wall. We are not facing a flood of new unauthorized immigrants. Moreover, most unauthorized immigrants overstay legal visas, having first entered by plane, not over the southern border. The total number of immigrants apprehended crossing the border is far below what it was in 2000. In past decades, most were single individuals from Mexico. For the last few years, most have been Central American families fleeing violence and poverty, the very populations our immigration laws seek to protect.
Our immigration law allows migrants to present themselves to U.S. authorities and ask for asylum. Instead, the Trump administration has drastically reduced the number of asylum applications processed at legal ports of entry, creating a humanitarian crisis at the border. Thousands of asylum seekers wait in Mexico, while others, desperate to escape danger in their home countries, cross the border in remote and dangerous areas.
“The United States can do better than this,” said Martin. “We can welcome refugees and immigrants, as we have for years. We can offer safety and shelter to those fleeing persecution in their home countries, and we have the capacity and the legal obligation to permit those arriving at our borders to apply for asylum. Doing so will keep us true to the best of what the United States means, and will strengthen our country through the continuing contributions of immigrants.”