Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Responds to President’s Primetime Speech
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Washington, D.C. — On day 18 of the government shutdown, President Trump and Congressional Republicans continue to threaten the livelihoods of Americans by refusing to reopen the government. After House Democrats voted for the bipartisan funding bills that had broad support in the Senate, Senate Republicans are now failing to hold a vote to end the shutdown.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC issues the following response:
“We strongly condemn President Trump for shutting down the government over his pointless and unpopular border wall. 75% of Americans oppose the Trump shutdown over the border wall. In addition, 65% of the American people oppose including money for the border wall in a congressional spending bill. The President's stubborn unwillingness to listen to reason and the American public is hurting families -- hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss their paycheck this week. Instead of holding American workers and families hostage over a medieval and ineffective concept, Senate Republicans need to be the adults in the room and vote to end the shutdown.
President Trump manufactured a humanitarian crisis at the southern border by separating families, jailing children, and turning away and tear-gassing asylum seekers. While the President's speech tonight tried to instill fear, in reality, unauthorized border crossings are at historic lows.
After creating mass chaos with his inhumane policies, President Trump is now trying to use this chaos to justify spending billions of taxpayer dollars on a misguided campaign slogan about a wall for which he said another country would pay. Senate Republicans must stop caving to the President’s childish demands and allow the House funding bill to the floor for a vote. We need to reopen the government and let those 800,000 people get back to work.”