¡HICA! Responds to President Trump's Oval Office Address

For Immediate Release:

January 9, 2019

Dear Friends,

President Donald Trump delivered a nationally televised address riddled with distortions, falsehoods, and fallacies. This president seeks to sow discord, division, and fear to build a wall that would be ineffective, impractical, and costly.

These are the things that we do know: There is indeed a humanitarian crisis at our southern border that has only been exacerbated by this administration’s reactionary, draconian, and short-sighted policies. The response to the thousands of fathers, mothers, and children who are fleeing violence and seeking refuge is asylum.  There is no place in our national discourse for rhetoric that misrepresents migrants as criminals.

Immigrants and refugees at our southern border are coming to this country to escape violence and to give their families an opportunity at a better life. Seeking asylum is a legal right, regardless of port of entry. Finally, immigrants, documented and undocumented, commit crime at rates much lower than the native born population.

¡HICA! believes that as a nation we can rise to our greatest ideals. We call on the President to work with Congress to end the shutdown and allow the government to serve all that reside in this country.

Carlos Alemán
Deputy Director