Issued January 25, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to President Trump’s executive actions on building a border wall, immigration enforcement and restoring the “Secure Communities Program” today, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement:
“For a president who claims to represent and lead from a posture that is not partisan and of the people, Donald Trump’s executive actions have proven that his agenda is anything but that. It is clear our president is choosing to pander to extremists and act as a puppet for their agenda aimed at dividing and weakening our nation rather than honoring the commitment he made in his oath of office, ‘to preserve, protect, and defend’ American justice, welfare and liberty.
“His executive actions undermine the values on which our country was built. They unfairly target and dismantle entire families who live by the American creed of working hard and playing by the rules for the opportunity to give their families a better life. America’s immigrant families strengthen our communities and our economy by adding to the richness and diversity of the nation’s fabric and by creating millions of jobs every year. Our nation’s immigrant families run almost a fifth of its small businesses. They do the work our families need and that drives our economy: caring for our children, the sick and the elderly, and securing and cleaning our offices and airports.
“It is an egregious abuse of the public trust that a newly inaugurated president, who took the oath of office just days ago, would choose to undermine the very principles on which our nation was founded by scapegoating hardworking families with the falsehood that it advances safety.
“America’s working families reject the dangerous propaganda of the Trump administration. We are poised to stand up, show up and rise up by the millions to unite our communities nationwide. SEIU members and our communities will continue coming together in broad movements to fight for a say in the economic and political system rigged against us by bad corporate actors and self-interested politicians, embodied by the Trump administration and extremist leaders in Congress. We will stay in the streets and continue mobilizing to fight back until we can return our economy and democracy into the rightful hands of the people, by the people and for the people.”