Trump Texas Visit Spotlights Border Policy Failings

Please see below statement from Refugees International Senior U.S. Advocate Yael Schacher:

“Today, President Trump will leave the site of one crisis of his own making in Washington DC to visit another. Through his administration’s cruel ‘Remain in Mexico’ program and other draconian border policies, President Trump has fueled a humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border over the last four years that has pulled families apart and endangered the lives of thousands. His trip to Alamo, Texas will shine a spotlight on these failures. His border wall is a destructive boondoggle that has not improved security; as a federal judge ruled last week, his administration’s anti-asylum policies are reckless and illegal, “crashing the same car into a gate” over and over again.

The border trip comes amid a worsening pandemic that has hit southern Texas especially hard and during an acute threat of political violence incited by the President himself. The visit poses a danger to the border communities surrounding Alamo. The President will again try to use his border wall as a backdrop for his racist scapegoating of immigrants—trying to divert the attention of the public from the violent white supremacist attack he incited at the Capitol.

With political will and moral leadership, the incoming Biden administration must take swift action to turn the page on this shameful chapter and restore safety and humanity at our border.”

Read Yael Schacher’s latest report on a strategic plan for the Biden administration on managing asylum at the U.S. southern border drawing on lessons from the last three decades of border policy: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2020/12/17/building-better-not-backward-learning-from-the-past-to-design-sound-border-asylum-policy

For more information or to interview Yael, please contact Refugees International Director of Communications Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org.