Letter to the Hon. John Carter, United States Congressman, and the Hon. Lucille Roybal-Allard, United States Congresswomen - Defunding President Trump's Immigration Executive Orders

Letter

Dear Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Roybal-Allard,

As your Subcommittee begins consideration of the Department of Homeland Security's FY2018 Appropriations bill, we respectfully ask that you include bill language that would defund President Trump's executive orders on immigration; in particular, the executive orders titled "Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements" and "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States."

With his executive orders, President Trump has undermined our values and identity as an immigrant nation, and instilled fear and caused turmoil in American communities. The executive orders ramp up expedited removals, which deny due process to asylum-seeking individuals, among others. The orders instruct the Federal government to build a wall along our southern border at great cost to the American people. The orders threaten public safety and community trust in law enforcement by deputizing local police to enforce immigration law. The orders eliminate smart, targeted enforcement priorities geared toward serious criminals and instead place 11 million people at risk of deportation, including mothers, fathers, and students who are working hard and contributing to America.

These policies will cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, wreak havoc on our economy, hurt key industries like agriculture and hospitality, and damage public safety by using critical, limited homeland security funds to go after strawberry pickers, teachers, nurses, babysitters, and dishwashers. Our immigration system is in chaos because of Congress's decades-long failure to act. Instead of funding the President's misguided priorities that will surely create more mayhem and harm, we should work in a bipartisan way to enact a bill to update our legal immigration system so that all who come to work, invest, and join family do so through legal channels and in a manner consistent with Americans' best interests.

Therefore, we ask you to reject the President's proposed FY2017 supplemental budget request for an additional $3 billion to implement his executive orders on border security and interior immigration enforcement. We also oppose the President's proposed FY2018 Homeland Security budget and respectfully request the inclusion of the following language in the FY2018 Appropriations bill to defund these harmful executive orders on immigration:

No funds, resources, or fees made available to the Secretary of Homeland Security, or to any other official of a Federal agency, by this Act or any other Act for any fiscal year, including any deposits into the "Immigration Examinations Fee Account" established under section 286(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1356(m)), may be used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out any of the policy changes set forth in Executive Order 13767 or 13768.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and your hard work on the FY2018 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

Sincerely,