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Statement

Moms Group Urges Trump Administration to Refrain from ‘Heartless, Inhumane’ Policy of Separating Asylum-Seeking Parents from Their Children

December 23, 2017
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, a national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families
“We are alarmed and horrified by reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering formalizing a policy of separating parents from their children when families come to this country seeking protection or asylum, and by complaints that DHS has already done so in several cases. This practice is heartless and shameful and a gross violation of fundamental human rights. Children and families fleeing violence, who seek protection and asylum in our country, deserve to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
 
“America’s moms do not want our government to tear families apart, separate children from their parents or traumatize vulnerable young children. This is not only cruel and inhumane; it’s also a human rights abuse in the name of immigration enforcement.
 
“The moms of America are gravely concerned with the harmful anti-immigrant actions of the Trump administration and Congress. We do not want to traumatize children, build harmful walls, or tear families apart. This direction hurts our families, our communities, and our economy.  MomsRising and mothers across the country will organize against any policy that separates children from the family members they love and rely on.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.