As President and U.S. House attempts government shutdown over border security ICIRR demands investigation into immigration system before another life is lost

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CHICAGO (December 20, 2018)--The following is a statement from Lawrence Benito, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Refugee and Immigrant Rights, in response to the house vote to approve $5 billion for a border wall.

 

“A mere week after seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin died in Border Patrol custody, and three weeks after border agents fired tear gas into a crowd of asylum seekers many of whom were children, the president and house republicans have weaponized and politicized our immigration system and the entire federal government at the expense of human life. House republicans have recklessly caved to the President’s ludicrous demand to divert an astronomical $5 billion away from serving the public good, to fund a senseless border wall and create a government shutdown. A no vote from the Senate including from Senators Durbin and Duckworth is a no-brainer. Additionally, our Senators should show leadership and use this as an opportunity to demand an investigation into the Trump administration’s activities at the border before more lives are lost. The expenditure of our tax dollars for violence, chemical warfare, and the wall risks the lives of migrants desperately fleeing violence for better opportunity is unfathomably reckless and fiscally  irresponsible.

 

“Once the political theater passes, the wall proposal fails and the shutdown ends, ICIRR members will look to the 116th Congress to hold the Department of Homeland Security including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable for their deplorable human rights violations. We will be insisting that new House leadership use all of the resources at their disposal to investigate these agencies, make their findings public, and hold them accountable for their actions.”

 

Part of the federal government will shut down on Friday.

 

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