The racism, nationalism, and misogyny driving the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants is evident to all but a willfully ignorant majority on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Whether in exclusionary policies like the Muslim ban that the SCOTUS approved this week, or the inhumane practice of separating families seeking asylum, Trump administration immigration policies reflect the unprecedented influence of Nativist, anti-immigrant think tanks, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). These jacket-and-tie supremacists are advancing their founder’s dream of preserving a permanent White numerical majority in the United States. These groups used to focus on lobbying Congress. These days, their leaders meet regularly with senior Trump advisor, Stephen Miller, and a number of their former staffers now hold key roles in the administration’s agencies.
Together, they have manufactured an immigrant and refugee crisis they propose to “solve” by radically transforming the Justice Department’s immigration policies and short-circuiting due process. Their so-called zero tolerance is a blatant attempt to criminalize asylum seekers and transform government agencies into instruments of repression.
We are also troubled by how Trump’s allies on the Right are waging a successful campaign to pack the federal courts with right-wing (many of them objectively unqualified White men)—virtually guaranteeing that these policies will be upheld for years to come. The sudden resignation this week of Justice Anthony Kennedy, known for providing the deciding vote on many significant 5-4 decision, presents the Trump administration with an opportunity to set the judicial course of the country, perhaps for a generation. With the Muslim ban, immigrant and refugee family ban, and implicit promise to ban abortion, this regime is trampling on our rights and our freedoms.
But immigrant communities are, and always have been, resilient. This current moment is no exception. Immigrants and the vast community of support behind them are leading powerful direct action and declaring they are #HereToStay. These bold efforts, including the “Families Belong Together” demonstrations scheduled nationwide for June 30, and the growing demand to #AbolishICE demonstrate the strength of an alternative vision for the U.S. This vision rejects the cynical and dangerous idea—embedded in Trump administration actions—that for some groups to prosper others must be dominated or expelled.
Political Research Associates proudly aligns ourselves with immigrant and Muslim justice movements and all who believe in an inclusive, multi-racial, and religiously pluralistic understanding of We, the people. We hold that if you come for any of us you’ll have to come through all of us. We envision a just and prosperous future and know in our hearts and in our bones that we will all rise or fall together.