ACLU Statement on Senate Committee Passage of Immigration Enforcement Funding

WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security today passed funding for the Department of Homeland Security that included massive, unwarranted spending on immigration enforcement. The bill now goes to the full appropriations committee for a vote on Thursday.

Lorella Praeli, American Civil Liberties Union director of immigration policy and campaigns, issued the following statement:

“Congress needs to send a clear message to the Trump administration that his deportation force is out of control. This bill takes the wrong approach by failing to cut enforcement and detention spending, funding more Border Patrol agents, and paying a ransom for Trump’s wall obsession — all after he created a humanitarian crisis by separating families.

“Approving this funding would abdicate senators’ responsibility to do everything in their power to end family separations, a cruel and unnecessary policy implemented by the same Border Patrol that gets more money under this legislation. We need the full appropriations committee to oppose the bill and demand Trump end his heinous family separation policy that has traumatized thousands of children, with more separated every day. It’s not enough to speak out — ACLU members call on senators to take action.”