FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2019

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Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-805-0375

At State of the Union Address, Trump Again Turns to Stoking Fear on Manufactured Border Crisis

WASHINGTON — In his second State of the Union Address and on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, President Trump once again turned to fearmongering, dehumanizing immigrants, and touting the crisis he manufactured at the border.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“President Trump’s attempts to cloak his State of the Union Address in a call for unity and bipartisanship quickly defaulted into attacks on immigrants, communities of color, and many other vulnerable communities. Trump made his priorities clear last month when he recklessly endangered the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of federal workers to try to force his way. Rather than learn from his failures, he used his speech tonight to once again stoke fear and perpetuate lies about a crisis his administration is manufacturing at the border in a desperate attempt to secure funding for his border wall vanity project.

“His attacks have been constant, but his audience has changed. He delivered his address in front of hundreds of people who have displayed courage and conviction in the face of the Trump administration’s discriminatory actions. People like Marco Villada, our former client who was separated from his husband and loved ones and who fought hard to come back home to Los Angeles, and Ali Hassan and Shaima Swileh, who were cruelly separated by Trump’s Muslim ban. These leaders will help our nation move past these divisive times and toward a more inclusive society.

“President Trump showed tonight that he does not care for federal workers and their families, and he will not listen to taxpayers, elected leaders in Congress, or community leaders, including mayors of border towns. But the most recent elections have shown that such disregard has real consequences. We are counting on Congress to use the mandate voters gave them in November to block Trump and his administration from further endangering our communities and instead to push toward solutions that work for all of us.”

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