Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech on immigration to Customs and Border Protection in Nogales, Arizona, and issued a new policy memo prioritizing criminal immigration enforcement along the U.S. southern border. Naureen Shah, senior director of campaigns at Amnesty International USA, had the following reaction:
“This is bigotry, plain and simple. The Attorney General should apologize for these remarks and, more importantly, the Trump Administration should stop basing policy affecting refugees and immigrants on fear and bigotry. This criminalization of people seeking asylum and immigrants is just the latest malicious attempt to close our borders in the name of national security. Under international law, people fleeing horrific violence have every right to seek asylum and should not be prosecuted for how they cross a border. No one seeking safety should be treated like a criminal.”