National

“No Beds, No Boots, No Wall” Demands National Grassroots Network

Grassroots community organizations demand Congress refuse to fund the Trump Administration’s racist and dangerous border wall and deportation force

WASHINGTON –(ENEWSPF)–April 25, 2017.   More than a hundred community activists from throughout the country descended on Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)’s D.C. office demanding that he reject any budget that spends taxpayer money to fund the Trump administration’s deportation and detention forces.

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Chanting, singing and telling their stories, People’s Action members flooded the Appropriations Committee Chair’s office. The peaceful protesters called on Congress to take a stand against the administration’s xenophobic, violent and wasteful immigration executive orders.

“Not one penny of taxpayer dollars should go for Trump’s racist and dangerous border wall and deportation force,” said Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action and a resident of Rep. Frelinghuysen’s district for more than 37 years.

“As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Congressman Frelinghuysen has a unique opportunity to stand up for his constituents – and the country – by standing against Trump’s hateful and wasteful executive orders and budget. The Congressman’s constituents will remember whether he stood up for what is right or whether he caved to Trump’s demands to attack our communities,” said Salowe-Kaye.

In addition to the billions already spent on immigration enforcement, the Trump administration has asked Congress to fund at least an additional $3 billion to fund its anti-immigration agenda. This supplemental budget request would use taxpayer money to fund the border wall and a massive expansion of America’s unjust and inhuman immigration detention and deportation systems.

“From deported Dreamers to victims of domestic violence being arrested while seeking protection from our courts to recent deaths in for-profit immigration detention centers, we’ve seen the cruel and unjust face of this administration’s immigration policy in our communities,” said Jessica Juarez Scruggs, deputy director of policy for People’s Action.  “Congress must not spend one cent of taxpayer dollars to fund this attack on our communities.”

Beyond the infamous wall, the $3 billion supplemental request would significantly increase the number of immigrants held in for-profit private prisons.

“Writing a blank check to private prison companies doesn’t make my community safer,” said Priscilla Robinson from the New Jersey Organizing Project.

“We need a budget that invest in our communities, not a deportation and detention force that lines the pockets of Trump’s corporate cronies and rips apart our neighbors’ families,”

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People’s Action is a national organization of more than a million people across 30 states working for economic, racial, gender and climate justice – and to ensure everyone a voice in our political system. From family farms to big cities, from coast to coast, we’re fighting for community over greed, justice over racism, and people and planet over big corporations.

Source: http://peoplesaction.org

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