Join the Four Freedoms Coalition in support of immigrants and against the recent Executive Orders targeting immigrants who seek safety, freedom, and opportunity in the United States.

STATEMENT ON THE JANUARY 25TH EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON IMMIGRATION

Lady Liberty must be shuddering.

The Four Freedoms Coalition rejects the Executive Orders targeting immigrants who seek safety, freedom, and opportunity in the United States.

We reject the building of additional walls on our southern border.  

We reject the building of the new “internment” camps, only vaguely disguised as more prisons for asylum seekers and potential deportees before their cases are finally adjudicated.

And we reject policies based on demonizing and criminalizing people who are struggling to lead good lives in the U.S., working hard, raising families, and contributing to our communities as generations before them have done.

We reject these policies because they abandon our most basic values as Americans, particularly the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from fear and want.

The United States has always committed itself to assisting those seeking a better life and fleeing persecution, not throwing asylum seekers and immigrants in jail.  The orders issued January 25th go well beyond our present policy of deporting those who have committed serious crimes, and fly in the face of our 240-year history as a nation of immigrants.

Restricting the admission of immigrants from war-torn countries and depriving refugees of hope,
safety and the opportunity to rebuild their lives will not make us safer.  It will, however, result in raids, mass deportations, and, most assuredly, fear and terror in our communities. We will become a nation that restricts entry to this country based on race, religion, nationality and ethnicity. We oppose discrimination and prejudice practiced against immigrants and refugees.

The rich history of welcoming a diverse immigrant population into our communities has strengthened our social fabric and made America prosperous and competitive in a changing world. For over two centuries, through many waves of immigration from all over the world, families were given opportunities to get an education, join the workforce, and become citizens of our great nation. At other times, however, xenophobia has overwhelmed our nation’s capacity for compassion, and we have slammed our doors shut to people in their greatest hours of need.

With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time in recorded history, we demand that the administration withdraw its decision and instead work diligently to continue America’s bipartisan, 240-year-old commitment to welcoming and protecting immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from all nations. And we urge the citizens of this country to stand up for our immigrant brothers and sisters. No more walls.