Katie Adams, Policy Advocate for Domestic Issues, United Church of Christ, and co-chair of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition said:
Whether it’s banning Muslims, asylum seekers, and refugees from the United States; forcibly separating children from their parents; deporting our neighbors; detaining and incarcerating immigrants, including families; killing programs like DACA and TPS; or running roughshod over border communities, the Trump administration has already mismanaged billions of federal tax dollars and undermined U.S. moral leadership.
Congressional appropriators must use the power of the purse to rein in this xenophobic and hateful administration and hold the administration accountable for its harmful policies. The DHS budget is already bloated with billions of tax dollars being used to militarize border communities, put immigrants in jail, attack families, and traumatize children.
Congress should invest in compassionate policies that welcome asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants, and cut funding for detention, deportation, and border militarization.
Yesterday, thirty-one national religious groups of diverse denominations sent a letter to Congress, calling on federal appropriators to recognize the moral aspect of their immigration spending decisions.
“We believe that our nation’s budget and the decisions made by Congress in the coming weeks should be treated as a moral roadmap toward a world where every child of God is clothed, fed, safe, loved, and free,” the letter states. “Spending billions of dollars on enforcement policies that often strip people of their dignity and routinely treat migrants with cruelty is a departure from our moral standing as a country and poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”
Read the entire letter here. Quotes from additional religious leaders are available here.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 52 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
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