From racist & xenophobic rhetoric that culminated in mass raids, Muslim bans, kids in cages, family separations & more..the Trump Admin tried to tear us down.
In it's final hours, all we can say after an excruciating & exhausting 4yrs is THANK YOU to all who answered the call.
It wasn't easy. As attorneys, social workers, advocates...as an org and as a community made up of folks directly impacted by the state of immigration in this country...it was not easy. It. Was. Damn. Hard.
But we will build back. And the fight for #MigrantJustice will continue.
We will reunite families.
We will tear down walls.
And we pledge to not only build back everything that was destroyed these past 4 years, but push to create something BETTER.
#TrumpsLastDay didn't come as quickly as we'd hoped. But it's here.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The attack on Congress last week established that walls don't work, yet the half built one on the U.S. - Mexico border remains a symbol of all the hate Trump has spewed & generated during the last 4 years.
Y’all should know better by now but with the #CoupAttempt we’ve seen far too many of these statements, so here’s an informational thread 🧵 on why this is problematic.
1) The use of this term is not only outdated, but factually incorrect. Much like the use of “underdeveloped” countries.
“Underdevelopment isn’t a stage of development, it’s a consequence,” as Eduardo Galeano writes in his book, The Open Veins of Latin America -> a must read 📖
For 5 centuries European colonizers and U.S. corporations, have plundered the Global South’s abundant natural resources in order to extract & enrich “1st world” foreign interests AND fueling migration north due to economic and social/political violence in the south.
FYI: Pres. Trump had no legislative success and was still able to make 400 changes to immigration ‼️
Trump's Admin showed us it can be done. Quickly & effectively.
There's no reason it can't be undone in the same manner.
"At a time when people are dying at the border, of #COVID19 in detention centers, & millions continue to live under the shadows, we have no time to lose. It is imperative that @JoeBiden take bold executive actions on immigration IMMEDIATELY and w/o delay." - @ErikaAndiola
The changes would, among other things, do the following: 🔽
1⃣Require all asylum apps be filed within 15 days of an asylum seeker’s first court hearing.
2⃣Assess a filing fee for all asylum apps, for the 1st time in U.S. history with no opportunity for a waiver of the fee.
3⃣Place onerous burdens on asylum seekers to ensure their apps are accepted by the immigration court, including permitting outright rejection of applications that do not conform to specific form-filling instructions and providing limited opportunity to remedy errors.
Leading this department will be no easy task, but we hope that as the 1st Latinx & someone who has advocated for immigrant rights, he'll change the direction of DHS once and for all.
Mayorkas played a crucial role in the creation of #DACA as the Director of USCIS under the Obama Admin.
We look forward to the immediate expansion of the program AND the dismantling of the detention and deportation machine that was created under Obama and expanded by Trump.
@DHSgov is a department that was built in the wake of 9/11 to protect the U.S. from terrorists — only for it to now be used to terrorize immigrants.
The new Biden admin must recognize this and immediately change course.