Issued October 09, 2017
WASHINGTON—In response to President Trump’s “Immigration Principles and Policies,” SEIU International Executive Vice President and iAmerica Action president Rocio Sáenz issued the following statement:
"The so-called “principles” are a non-starter and un-American. Trump wants Congress to help him to put millions of additional lives at risk of deportation, turn away refugees, keep families apart, deport immigrants without due process, punish state and local governments that would rather arrest immigrant business owners than violent criminals, hurt our economy by pushing immigrants even further into the shadows, and of course build his vanity border wall.
"These are not principles. They are evidence that the racist and anti-immigrant extremists within the White House have regained complete control. Any reasonable principles for immigration reform would start by acknowledging the benefits that hard working immigrants bring to our nation and would prescribe the changes needed to allow them to contribute even more. There is nothing even remotely like that here.
"The President has no ‘heart’ for Dreamers who have grown up in our nation. He just wants to use them as bargaining chips, an approach that the vast majority of Americans oppose. Polls show they overwhelmingly want legislation to allow Dreamers to stay with no strings attached. That's what Congress should do.
“SEIU members will continue using the strength of our union to demand that Congress take immediate action and pass the bipartisan DREAM Act. We all must resist this divisive racist attack on our communities, and work towards common-sense policies that put America’s DREAMers and immigrant families on a path to full legal status, not mass deportation."