Government Shutdown Ends, Work to Build Real Solutions Continues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Amy Shannon: ashannon@alianzaamericas.org
Yancy Nuñez: ynunez@alianzaamericas.org
CHICAGO – January 29, 2019 – As of Friday, the federal government is back up and running, ending a five-week impasse over the budget and a $5.7 billion border wall. Oscar Chacón, executive director of Alianza Americas, offered the following statement:
“We celebrate that government employees, forced to drain their savings accounts and stand in line at food banks during this debacle, can now get back to work. But our applause is tempered by the fact that this five-week showdown—a stalemate manufactured by the White House holding the nation hostage over a useless border wall—resolved none of the policy shortcomings that have plagued our country and hemisphere for decades. In the short three weeks between now and February 15, we call for elected officials to negotiate real solutions that will bolster security and safety for all people of the Americas.
Top of that list of policy solutions are permanent protections for TPS and DACA beneficiaries, all fully vetted, work-authorized members of our communities who face critical security threats if they are deported from the United States. We also call for respect and support for internationally-recognized asylum laws that prioritize family unity and foster safety for all by ensuring due process and timely processing of asylum cases. We call on Congress to protect and rebuild the nation’s Refugee Resettlement Program. We reject policies that invest in the additional militarization of our southern border, at the expense of investments that will address the inequality, poverty, and violence that drive forced migration and that plague communities in the United States and across our hemisphere.
We are well aware that the balance of power in Congress for at least the next two years will require serious negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. We must hold our elected officials accountable to advancing this positive appropriations agenda, rather than wrangling over the shape and size of additional enforcement spending. Alianza Americas members will be visiting legislators in February to make sure they get the message.
The worst case scenario would be to wake up on February 15 with a “compromise” providing billions more for immigration enforcement and no concrete actions to address the challenges shared by communities across our hemisphere. Spending billions to address a fabricated “border” crisis, would simply drive a new round of true humanitarian crises.
Alianza Americas is a network of 50 immigrant-led organizations representing more than 100,000 families across the United States. It is the only US-based organization rooted in Latino and Caribbean immigrant communities that works transnationally to create an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable way of life. Learn more at alianzaamericas.org.
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