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Statement

The Problem Starts at the Top. New Leadership at the Department of Homeland Security Alone Will Not End the Trump Administration’s Failed Immigration Policies.

April 8, 2019
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen:

“While Secretary Nielsen’s departure will bring new leadership to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we need new policies and perspectives that are based on facts and built on a foundation of respect for basic human rights. It is very clear that the problem with our country’s current immigration policies starts at the top. Unless President Trump stops demonizing asylum-seekers and abandons his counterproductive policies, his administration will continue to fail.

“Secretary Nielsen’s tenure will be forever remembered as a shameful chapter in our country’s history, when our government forcibly separated thousands of children from their parents and lost track of many of them, put children and families in cages, and embraced long-term detention for desperate families seeking only a better life. The administration needs to address, rather than exacerbate, the humanitarian crisis and stop basing its policies on lies and distortions.

“We note that Friday brought truly horrifying reports that it may take our government two years to identify thousands of immigrant children who we separated from their families at the southern border. Solving that problem, which the Trump administration created, should be a top priority for the new DHS leadership.

“This is a moment when we must choose the kind of nation we will be. The moms of America are clear on this: We reject President Trump’s dehumanizing, divisive anti-immigrant policies and demand that all immigrants and asylum-seekers be treated with dignity, humanity and respect.”

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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.