Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Urges Representatives to Defund Hate Agenda and Denounce DHS Bill
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Washington, D.C. — Today the House Appropriations Committee is set to vote on a proposed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security next fiscal year. The bill includes an extraordinary $2 billion increase for immigration enforcement — which would fund a hateful agenda of mass deportations and anti-immigrant sentiment.
Under the proposed revisions of the bill, funding will include an increase of 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and 500 border patrol agents, an increase to an all-time high of 44,000 detention beds, training of local police for enforcement of immigration laws, and funding for the physical construction of a border wall.
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC issued the following statement:
“The latest House Homeland Security appropriations bill is a woeful and inhumane misallocation of priorities.
By proposing such high funding levels, the consequences are chilling. This budget does not fix our broken immigration system but instead significantly furthers Trump's goal of mass deportation. This budget will tear families apart and reinforce negative stereotypes about the immigrant community.
Each day the administration seems to get further out of touch, seeking to divest from anti-poverty, education, and health programs that benefit people from the inner cities to the rust belt of America in order to fund its deportation and criminalization agenda of immigrants.
We will stand against any and all efforts to advance President Trump’s un-American agenda of mass deportations. We urge members of the House of Representatives to vote against this funding, which encourages division and upholds such hateful values.”
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