The open borders lobby is worried President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement plan will become more effective, stoking fears over a “Goliath deportation machine.”
To executives at the pro-immigration organization, the American Immigration Lawyers Associated (AILA), the mere prospect of Congress aiding in Trump’s immigration enforcement measures is frightening. When the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on a slew of immigration enforcement bills, AILA did not remain mum.
“The House is giving President Trump a second try at creating the Goliath deportation machine that he asked Congress to fund a few weeks ago,” AILA Director of Government Relations Greg Chen said in a statement. “Collectively these bills establish a massive, militarized force that will detain and deport thousands more people while undermining the Constitution and depriving people of fundamental due process.”
Chen said immigration enforcement is a “burden on taxpayers,” costing “billions of dollars for more agents and detention,” suggesting that enforcing federal immigration law is “is not what America stands for and it’s not what Americans want…”
The President of the open borders group, William Stock, said in a similar, emotion-filled statement that enforcement of federal immigration law is the “antithesis” of what “our nation was built on.”
“Chaotic and ill-thought bills that undermine public safety, trample the U.S. Constitution, harm Americans and their families and waste millions in taxpayer dollars are the antithesis of what our country needs and the values our nation was built on,” Stock said of the idea of increasing immigration enforcement.
Stock then blasted Trump’s and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ efforts to go after sanctuary jurisdictions.
“Just as the President has threatened to go after local sheriffs and police, these House bills create an unfunded federal mandate on localities to enforce immigration law even if it jeopardizes the trust they have with their communities, and ultimately public safety,” Stock continued.
Since Trump took office, the open borders lobby has taken some of the most extreme positions on the political spectrum. For instance, most recently, advocates have denounced the deportation of violent criminal illegal immigrants, as Breitbart Texas reported.
When Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opened up its VOICE office to help the victims of families impacted by illegal immigrant crime, one leader called the move “despicable,” Breitbart Texas reported.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.