• Press Release

Amnesty International USA Reaction to President Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Executive Actions 

January 20, 2025

(Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In response to the executive actions announced by President Trump calling for mass deportations of people seeking safety and halting the US Refugee Admissions Program, Amy Fischer, Director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, said the following: 

“Barely a couple of hours into his second term, President Trump is already seeking to implement his harmful, racist, anti-immigrant agenda with these executive actions. 

“President Trump’s National Emergency Declaration turns the white nationalist ‘Great Replacement Theory’ into federal policy. To be clear, reinstating cruel border policies, ending rights enshrined in the Constitution like birthright citizenship, halting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, shutting down the CBP One application, and implementing targeted raids across the United States, not only sows chaos and fear among communities across the country and people attempting to seek safety in the U.S., it perpetuates false narratives and harm rooted in white supremacy.  

“The Trump administration believes our immigrant neighbors shouldn’t be here.  And after President Biden eroded the rights of people seeking safety, President Trump’s promises to further crack down on asylum will only exacerbate the chaos across the country and the humanitarian crisis at the border. 

“People are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table. Yet President Trump’s response is to blame immigrants and people seeking safety for problems that he and other leaders are failing to address. 

“Brave, resilient families and individuals arrive to the U.S. to exercise their right to seek safety, to seek a new life, to pursue their dreams, and contribute to their new communities. They are met by a broken system that prolongs and profits off their suffering.  

“President Trump’s fearmongering scapegoats immigrants for the political failures of our elected leaders. Those seeking safety and a better life in the U.S. are not the cause of the housing, climate, or opioid crises, or rising costs at the grocery store – policymakers are. 

“We must put a stop to the years-long trend of playing politics and stoking fear with people’s lives to facilitate the adoption of increasingly draconian border and immigration policies that violate the human rights of people seeking safety, fuel violence against Black, brown, and Indigenous communities across the U.S., and exacerbate the dysfunction of our already beleaguered immigration system.  

“Solutions that abide by human rights obligations, include the voices and experiences of impacted communities, allow our immigrant neighbors to access a pathway to citizenship, and respect the shared strength that comes from welcoming people seeking safety are effective, fair, and ultimately save taxpayer dollars to be reinvested in policies and programs that lift up all of our communities. 

“Amnesty International will continue to document human rights abuses, advocate for the human rights of all immigrants and people seeking safety in the United States, and hold U.S. government officials accountable.” 

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