FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 8, 2019
CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-805-0375
Trump Is Obsessed with Vanity Wall and Willing to Hurt Millions of People to Get It
WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown drags into its third week, President Trump gave a speech on prime-time network television Tuesday evening in a desperate attempt to secure funding for his border wall project.
Marielena Hincapié, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:
“President Trump’s prime-time tirade today once again highlights his preference for showy displays over substantive policy solutions and reveals an alarming commitment to perpetuating lies and fearmongering in order to secure funding for his border wall vanity project. While Trump angrily spouts lies about a false crisis that his administration manufactured at the border, he is recklessly disregarding the very real impact of his actions on the lives and livelihoods of not only border communities, but all who call this country home. For the past several weeks, he has stubbornly refused to negotiate solutions that will keep our country functioning and safe. In the meantime, two children have unconscionably died in U.S. government custody, thousands of government workers are being denied their incomes, treasured national parks are in disarray, and Native American communities are being disproportionately deprived of critical services.
“American taxpayers have made their views clear. As citizens and as people, we must not only hold our government accountable for spending our taxpayer dollars wisely, but also demand that it take responsibility and address the deaths of the two children under its care and the dangerous situation it is creating for communities on the southern border. Anything less is shameful. Our government cannot get away with this blatant and dangerous disregard for human lives.”
# # #
What’s the Alternative? Instead of Detention Centers, Use Warehouses for Communities
Published Jul 7, 2026 ICE wants to use abandoned warehouses to jail immigrants on a mass scale for indefinite periods. This resource highlights alternatives uses for these spaces—from libraries to office parks—that would strengthen communities...
NILC Responds to SCOTUS Decisions on TPS and Asylum
Published Jun 25, 2026 Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), issued the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings clearing the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and...
What’s in Congress’s New ICE Funding Law?
Published Jun 11, 2026
The US Must Keep its Promises to LGBTQ+ Immigrants
Elizabeth Choo
Published Jun 22, 2026 The government’s refusal to provide humanitarian relief to transgender immigrants is just one of the ways the Trump administration is attacking the LGBTQ+ community.