National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance Blasts Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

#NoBanNoWall #RedefineSecurity #NotOurPresident

"Building a wall, constructing detention centers, and banning Muslims does not make us safer.  These executive actions demonize and criminalize our communities."

January 26, 2017 - The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) blasted Mr. Trump's executive orders calling them "detrimental to the interest of the American public - immigrants and citizens alike," according to Glenn D. Magpantay, NQAPIA's Executive Director.

Yesterday, Mr. Trump authorized spending U.S tax dollars on building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, notwithstanding that net migration from Mexico has decreased over the last 10 years. He decreed the creation of more detention centers, 5,000 additional border patrol agents, and a reinstatement of 287(g) that require local police enforcement of complicated federal immigration laws. His orders threaten to cut all federal funding from sanctuary cities and to reinstate Secure Communities, a deportation program that was discontinued due to ineffectiveness and increased distrust among immigrant communities.

Today, NQAPIA is anticipating that Mr. Trump will fulfill his campaign promise of implementing a Muslim ban. For 30 days, individuals from Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran will be banned from entering the U.S., simply because they live in Muslim-majority countries. Individuals from these countries will be unable to receive visas, even if they are already approved, intend to seek asylum, or have family members in the U.S. For 120 days, no refugees from these same countries will be allowed to enter the U.S. The only exception will be refugees who are religious minorities in their countries - in other words, refugees who are not Muslim.

Sasha W., NQAPIA's Organizing Director, said, "Building a wall, constructing detention centers, and banning Muslims does not make us safer.  Instead, these executive actions demonize and criminalize our communities. Trump campaigned on Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, anti-LGBT bigotry, misogyny, and ableism - not facts or policy. Our communities have already faced significant backlash during his campaign; now the hate violence is solidifying into federal policy."

In NQAPIA's #RedefineSecurity 2016 week of action,  in the beginning stages of Mr. Trump's campaign, NQAPIA lifted up the stories of institutional Islamophobic and xenophobic hate violence against our LGBTQ API communities. We told the stories of an Indian transwoman harassed by immigration officials; of a Pakistani traveler being invasively examined by TSA, in her body and belongings; of a queer South Asian organizer whose home was raided; of a Bangladeshi traveler who has been on the "no-fly list" since she was a child.

Last year, in the midst of this national uptick in hate and vigilante violence, NQAPIA submitted a model guidance to the Department of Homeland Security, urging DHS to adopt protections against profiling on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion.  Instead, Mr. Trump is doing the opposite - he is choosing to embolden the white nationalist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic elements of his campaign.

Sasha W. concluded, "Mr. Trump is continuing to enact policies that simply do not work and that make our communities feel more unsafe in this country."

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