In response to the U.S. House of Representatives passing the reconciliation bill, Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights with Amnesty International USA said:
“The reconciliation bill passed by the House of Representatives is yet another vehicle for President Trump to push forward his cruel anti-immigrant agenda.
“Immigrant communities in the U.S have been living through the hell of being torn from their families, targeted and rounded up at their jobs, schools, churches, and courthouses, arbitrarily arrested and detained, and in some cases disappeared to other countries or prisons with documented human rights abuses. The refugee program has been gutted, access to asylum at the border no longer exists, and those who have already been granted protection have been forcibly deported. Students, labor organizers, and immigration activists have been arrested and targeted for exercising their right to protest. These are not isolated incidents – they reflect a systematic effort to punish and dehumanize immigrants, deny them their human rights, and undermine the rule of law.
“The Trump administration is violating the human rights of immigrants while ignoring the rule of law, gutting due process, upending habeas corpus, while silencing dissent and creating fear to speak out.
“This is not a just or functional immigration system. It is one designed to inflict harm, stoke fear, and demonize immigrants to fuel racism and xenophobia. The consequences are felt in all of our communities.
“Pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into mass detention, deportation and militarizing the border will fix nothing, and doing so at the expense of federal programs that help everyday Americans survive, will only deepen the cruelty.
“This bill threatens the rights and well-being of millions, including by slashing Medicaid, and gutting SNAP — all while delivering massive tax breaks to the wealthy. Working families are being sacrificed to bankroll an agenda of cruelty that includes terrorizing immigrant communities, cracking down on the right to protest and ignoring the rule of law.
“It is shameful such a bill made it through the House of Representatives. The Senate must reject this bill.”
Contact: [email protected]