For Immediate Release
February 11, 2016
Contact: Salvador Sarmiento, sgsarmiento@ndlon.org

REACTION: Sen. Sanders & Congressman Grijalva are Right about the Failure of President Obama’s Deportation Policy

Washington, DC—In response to the White House’s release of its final DHS budget, and news that Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Raul Grijalva sent a letter criticizing President Obama’s signature deportation policy, Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), released the following statement:

“Senator Sanders and Congressman Grijalva are right about the failure of President Obama’s deportation policy. A mere name change is not enough to undo the damage caused, nor is it enough to bridge the trust deficit caused by the failed experiment of using local police to enforce federal civil immigration laws. During his last year in office, President Obama should be dismantling the very infrastructure that has also emboldened demagogues like Donald Trump to scapegoat immigrants. At a bare minimum, the Obama Administration should be transparent about its deportation programs which threaten to radically alter the relationship between local and federal police.

“Rational policymakers at the local level revolted against President Obama’s crimmigration policy because it made communities less safe. Meanwhile, DHS and ICE will have to answer to federal lawsuits about their refusal to come clean about PEP-COMM and their own record on racial discrimination.

“Unfortunately, the recently-released White House budget affirms the worst of President Obama’s deportation legacy. It consolidates and expands the jail deportation regime started with S-COMM, now glossed up with PEP, and it maintains funding for a disgraceful family detention policy that serves and explicitly seeks to deter refugees by terrorizing Central American migrants.

“Ultimately, it’s cases like those of Angel Rosa, who was deported this week, that demonstrate the offensive meaning of the President’s callous budget..”

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