FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 20, 2018

CONTACT: Elliot Levy, [email protected], 202-800-7409

New York –In response to President Trump’s Executive Order “Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation”, Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, said:

“President Trump’s Executive Order does not solve the state of moral emergency that he himself created — families will still be separated and detained until he ends his own ‘zero tolerance’ policy. Instead, this order opens the door to indefinite detention of these families in facilities that are unsafe for children, or to expedited deportations back to the violence they fled, before families have been able to properly exercise their legal right to seek asylum. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are not only perpetuating the false idea that this crisis requires a Congressional fix, they are voting tomorrow on legislation that will only serve to harm and further criminalize immigrant families.  

The President has the power to immediately end his torture of immigrant families. He must reverse his disastrous ‘zero tolerance’ policy, reunite families, end this cycle of detention and deportation, and allow those fleeing violence to seek asylum. If he fails to do so, the American people must not be silent in the face of his cruelty and authoritarianism. We must speak out and demand an immigration policy that lives up to the Jewish values of compassion, mercy and a fundamental belief in human dignity.”

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is leading more than 140 Jewish organizations, synagogues and community institutions in declaring a "state of moral emergency" in response to President Trump’s recent actions on immigration. More than 15,000 Jewish Americans have also signed the declaration condemning the Trump administration’s actions and urging the American people to speak up against its anti-immigrant agenda.