FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 12, 2023
CONTACT: Bilal Askaryar | press@acaciajustice.org
[WASHINGTON] – The Acacia Center for Justice, an immigrants’ rights organization that supports and coordinates a portfolio of national programs delivering legal services and representation to immigrants, issued the following statement in response to former President Donald Trump’s recent claims about the people arriving at the US-Mexico border:
“These latest claims about the people seeking safety at our Southern border are reprehensible, untethered from reality, and may have deadly consequences,” said Shaina Aber, Executive Director of the Acacia Center for Justice. “The mass shooter that took the lives of 20 people in El Paso echoed the fear mongering and racism that have dominated political discourse in his manifesto. As political opportunists escalate scapegoating of vulnerable migrants, I worry about what individuals motivated by this violent rhetoric may do.”
“As an organization that works with a diverse community of legal service providers supporting immigrant communities across the country, we reaffirm the legal and human right to seek safety at our borders. People displaced by untenable circumstances, such as violence and persecution, ought to be welcomed with compassion and dignity, and provided with meaningful access to their legal rights. We call upon those promoting this harmful propaganda to reconsider their actions and messages.”
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