Leaked Emails Expose Trump’s Xenophobic, Racist Agenda

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2017

CONTACT
Juan Gastelum, [email protected], 213-375-3149

Leaked Emails Expose Trump’s Xenophobic, Racist Agenda

NILC and Undocublack respond to AP exclusive on request for Haitian and TPS data

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press reported today that a request was made of career U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) staff to collect and send data on Haitian temporary protected status (TPS)–holders, including information about use of safety-net programs and whether any Haitians with TPS had committed any crimes.

This request for information is as shocking as it is unattainable. It was made while the Trump administration mulls whether to extend the TPS designation of some 50,000 Haitians currently living in the U.S.

“The wanton racism against a group of Black immigrants is not surprising. What is surprising is the brazenness with which the Trump administration is attempting to carry it out,” said Patrice Lawrence, policy and advocacy manager for the UndocuBlack Network. “The fact that the USCIS office is going out of its way to wrap our communities around their mantle of criminality, while working overtime to deport and erase us, is malicious. We will not be bullied. We herald a stronger call for dignity and fairness for all. We need our allies to stand with our Haitian communities, because we know that they will use this precedent to paint all immigrants.”

“Yesterday we saw Trump’s lawyers struggle to explain the Islamophobic animus that motivated the Muslim ban. Today we hear about how his staff is attempting to criminalize Black immigrants,” said Kamal Essaheb, director of policy and advocacy for the National Immigration Law Center. “This is an administration that has run up the political scoreboard by attempting to demonize and divide immigrants, Muslims, and the Black community. All of us, regardless of where we were born, how we pray, or what we look like, should forcefully reject this attempt to criminalize an entire group that has become an integral component of our communities.”

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