“All-Out Attack”: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Policies Target Children, Cancer Patients & Servicemembers

15/10/2019

August 30, 2019

On Tuesday, the Trump administration reportedly ended its “medical deferred action” program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. Just one day later, it announced that some children born to U.S. servicemembers and government employees stationed overseas will no longer automatically receive citizenship. The policy changes come days after the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the Trump administration to implement its rule banning almost all migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. Amid these crackdowns, border wall construction began this week on federally protected lands in the remote Arizona desert, and many immigrant families remain separated due to Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, which was supposed to have ended more than a year ago. We speak with Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on immigrant rights. On Tuesday, the government reportedly ended its “medical deferred action” program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. Just one day later, it announced some children born to U.S. servicemembers and government employees stationed overseas will no longer automatically receive citizenship.

This all came just days after the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the Trump administration to implement its rule banning almost all migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. A federal judge in San Francisco had temporarily blocked the rule in July, halting plans to stop anyone who passes through a third country before arriving in the U.S. from applying for asylum. But Monday, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay on the ruling, allowing the rule to go into effect. The rule would stop virtually all people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from seeking refuge in the United States and apply for asylum in Mexico instead.

Amid these crackdowns, border wall construction began this week on federally protected lands in the remote Arizona desert. Construction crews are in the first phase of erecting two miles of border wall in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, endangering the fragile Sonoran Desert ecosystem and destroying Native Tohono O’odham and Hia C-ed O’odham land. The Washington Post is reporting President Trump has ordered his staff to speed up the construction of his border wall before the 2020 election, even if it means breaking the law.

All the while, many immigrant families remain separated due to Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, which was supposed to have ended more than a year ago.

Well, for more, we’re go to Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Lee, welcome back to Democracy Now!

LEE GELERNT: Thanks for having me.