The United States has long been a beacon of humanitarian protection.
Immigrants and refugees from all over the world come to the United States to seek safety, security, and a new life. However, decades of destructive policies, Congressional inaction, and pitting communities against each other have created heartbreaking human rights and humanitarian crises across the country, from small towns to big cities.
Today, we are witnessing cruelty at the border, raids in our communities, mass detention expansion including the detention of families with children, and President Trump’s mass deportations pushing our immigrant friends and neighbors to live in fear. These policies and practices have been catastrophic for immigrants and people seeking safety in communities across the United States.
Mass deportation is not only cruel and inhumane—it is also extraordinarily costly.
Right now, Congress is considering almost half a trillion dollars to advance President Trump’s harmful and xenophobic immigration policies, including border militarization and mass deportations that rip families and communities apart.
Critical federal programs like health care and nutrition assistance for children, Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans, will be cut to supercharge the mass deportation machine and continue crackdowns on immigrants and people seeking safety— including family separation, family detention, ICE enforcement at schools, churches, and hospitals.
Ask your lawmakers to vote NO on budget proposals that separate families and target asylum seekers.
Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have been woefully silent on immigration, or worse, have enabled and amplified the fearmongering against immigrants and people seeking safety. Immigrants and people seeking safety make our communities richer and more vibrant.
Congress should be providing more resources to communities, so EVERYONE can access their human rights, including affordable housing, quality education, and health care. With President Trump and his enablers now coming to power, Congressional leaders must rebuke white supremacy by protecting and welcoming immigrants.
Recently released Amnesty International research found that the right to seek asylum does not exist at the U.S./Mexico border, in violation of both U.S. domestic and international human rights obligations. People fleeing violence and persecution are stranded in danger in Mexico, without a way to access protection in the United States and constantly under threat of further harm.
The truth is the Trump administration believes our immigrant neighbors should not be here. And after President Biden eroded the rights of people seeking safety, Trump’s promises to further crack down on asylum will only exacerbate the chaos and the humanitarian crisis at the border.
People are struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the table. Communities and leaders struggle with opioid and housing crises. President Trump’s response: blame immigrants and people seeking safety for problems that he and other leaders are failing to address.
U.S. border and immigration policies aren’t working for anyone.
And the U.S. is not failing to find solutions because it has limited capacity, too few resources, or too many people coming, but because the U.S. lacks the political will to invest in orderly, humane and just solutions.
Instead of investing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into policies of cruelty that don’t work, Congress should instead invest in solutions that uplift all of our communities. Amnesty International’s Human Rights Blueprint for the Border charts out solutions to the issues at the border that abide by human rights and save taxpayer dollars.
Immigrants and refugees make our communities safer, richer and more vibrant. We cannot allow the continued weaponization of people’s fears about physical and economic security to justify abusive policies and harm to immigrants and people seeking safety at the border and in cities and towns across the U.S.
Most people have had the experience of leaving the place where they grew up and moving in search of a new job, education, family reunification, or safety. Maybe they will only move as far as the next village or city. But for some people, they will cross oceans and borders to reach safety and security.
What would you do if you had no choice but to leave everything behind? How would you want to be treated in a new place?
For those forced to leave, the journey is only the beginning. What happens next depends on the actions we take today.