Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Responds to the President’s 2019 State of the Union Address
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Washington, D.C. – Last night, President Trump delivered a divisive State of the Union address, falling back on hateful, anti-immigrant rhetoric in his continued bid for a destructive wall along the southern border.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC issues the following response:
“We are deeply disappointed by the President’s jingoistic, anti-immigrant remarks in last night’s State of the Union address. Despite calling for unity and bipartisanship, the President continued to peddle lies and misinformation about our nation’s diverse immigrant communities. In truth, the only crisis at the border is the one manufactured by President Trump himself—where families are ripped apart, children are locked in cages, and our troops are deployed against asylum seekers in search of protection.
From his first day in office, the President has relentlessly attacked our legal immigration system in an attempt to further his narrow, white nationalist view of America. Now the President is doubling down on his reckless campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border, ignoring the vast majority of American voters who oppose a wall. Although the President paid lip service to “compromise and the common good” in last night’s speech, he has clearly failed to come to grips with the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that immigration is good for America.
Congress must stand strong against President Trump’s unreasonable demands for aggressive immigration enforcement and keep the government open without increasing funding for detention, deportations, or any physical barrier that harms border communities and it must defund the President’s immoral, anti-immigrant agenda.”