2115 Piedras, El Paso, TX 79930 (915) 577.

0724
www.bnhr.org

January 25, 2017

For Immediate Release
Contact: Gabriela Castaeda
(915) 494-4213
gcastaneda@bnhr.org

PRESS STATEMENT

BNHR Condemns Trumps Persecution of Immigrant Families and

the Militarization of US/Mexico Border
El Paso, TX /Southern New Mexico- Today Trump Administration released a number of new
executive orders laying out their initial actions against border, immigrant and refugee
communities containing the following:

To loosen immigration enforcement priorities and extend the criminalization of

immigrants to put millions of American families, workers, students, and communities at
risk of mass deportation.
To call for tripling the number of ICE agents and add an additional 5,000 CBP agents.
This will create the Deportation Force he repeatedly promised during his presidential
campaign.
To have America turn its back on human suffering throughout the globe by suspending
refugee admittance for four months and pander to Islamophobia by barring immigration
from certain countries in a de facto religious test.

To seek to punish local communities for working to ensure that their approaches to public
safety include protecting immigrant communities from crime.
To continue his commitment to building a wall symbolizing American contempt for
Mexico, Mexicans, and border communities, but which offers no substantial constructive
contribution toward any policy goal.

The Border Network for Human Rights rejects all these efforts to criminalize immigrant
workers, students, parents, and others. We reject those who would spread fear among immigrant
families and drive them back into the shadows. We reject attempts to undermine the ability of
local governments to provide public safety in a manner that reflects the needs and composition of
our communities. We reject the Deportation Force. And we reject all efforts toward mass
deportation that would tear out immigrant communities and tear apart American society.
The Border Network for Human Rights rejects the notion that we can turn our back on the
plight of refugees. We reject the idea that selfishness and fear is an adequate reason to ignore
human suffering. We further reject the fear and hatred behind the idea that people should be
excluded from America because of their religion or their country of origin. We reject the
Islamophobia being promoted by the Trump Administration and the callousness they show
toward the people of this world.
The Border Network for Human Right rejects the unnecessary, ineffective, contemptuous,
ugly boondoggle of a wall that Mr. Trump is proposing. We reject being told to turn our back on
our Mexican neighbors as if they are somehow less than us. We reject the militarization of the
U.S.-Mexico border that this continues and formalizes. We reject the rampant migrant death and
suffering at our border that this ignores and even exacerbates. We reject the craven politics of
symbolism that ignores the lived realities of day-to-day life in this country in favor of
constructing useless walls that accomplish nothing besides give taxpayer dollars to contractors.
We reject a Fortress America.
And more than we reject, we resist.
In the face of those who wish to drive immigrants into the shadows of America, or out of the
country entirely, we stand to continue to let those communities know that they have rights and
they have a voice. America will not ignore the Constitution that binds and protects all of us.
In the face of those who want to divide us on the basis of how we pray or who fear those who
come hear to escape persecution and death, we continue to offer a message of welcoming and
support. America will not neglect its moral burdens.
In the face of those who view Mexicans with such contempt and who seek to literally wall
America off from our neighbor to the south, we will continue to open our arms to Mexico.
Americas future is inexorably linked to Mexico
And in the face of all of this, we continue to fight for a humane immigration reform that revamps
legal immigration to meet the needs and realities of the U.S., that provides a pathway for
citizenship for unauthorized immigrants already living in our communities, and that ensures
border enforcement agencies are accountable to the communities they serve. This, unlike the

empty and ineffective symbolism embraced by the Trump administration, is the only way to meet
the real challenges facing America. This is how we must move forward.
***
The Border Network for Human Rights, founded in 1998, is one of the leading human rights advocacy and immigration
reform organizations located at the U.S./Mexico Border. BNHR has over 7,000 members in West Texas and Southern