Faith Leader Denounces President Trump’s Insufficient Executive Order

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 20, 2018

​MEDIA CONTACT

Michelle Nealy, mnealy@faithinpubliclife.org, (202) 735-7123

Mackenzie Harris, mharris@faithinpubliclife.org, (610) 283-8879

Faith Leader Denounces President Trump’s Insufficient Executive Order 

Washington, D.C. —  Facing condemnation from faith leaders nationwide, President Trump signed a morally deficient executive order replacing family separation on the southern border with indefinite incarceration of immigrant families. This violates the 1997 Flores v. Reno court agreement and will require families to be jailed on military bases.

Over 7,000 women of faith have signed an open letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen demanding a complete stop to Customs and Border Protection officers’ current practice of ripping children out of their parents’ arms. These faith leaders also demanded that traumatized families be immediately reunited.

Rev. Jennifer Butler, former chair of the White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Founding Director, Faith in Public Life:

“Children belong with their families, not in cages or in even worse conditions. Merely stopping the inhumane practice of ripping children from their parents’ arms is insufficient. The Trump administration must end its wrongheaded ‘zero tolerance’ policy that subjects asylum seekers and immigrant families to indefinite detention. The administration must also immediately reunite the families it has shattered.”

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Faith in Public Life is a national network of nearly 50,000 clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice and the common good.