BREAKING: President Subverts Constitution and Jeopardizes U.S. Efforts to Stop Drug Trade
For Immediate Release:
February 15, 2019
MEDIA CONTACT:
Danielle Bernard
dbernard@lirs.org; 410-230-2888
BALTIMORE—The use of an emergency declaration to subvert congressional authority is a blatant violation of the constitutional separation of powers. This is what the President did moments ago in bypassing Congress to seize funding for a fifth-century border wall that is both unnecessary and ineffective.
“Diverting funds from programs that actually prevent drugs from coming into the United States to pay for a steel barrier around some of the safest areas of our country is incomprehensible,” said Krish Vignarajah, President and CEO of LIRS (Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service). “Americans, and those who seek safety here, will suffer because of this political ploy.”
This move is based on the President’s claims that our southern border is unsafe. This is simply not true. Reports show that 22 of the 23 counties on our southern border are safer than similar counties nationwide.
“The administration cannot afford to play games when lives are at stake,” continued Vignarajah. “We the people have elected Congress to uphold our nation’s laws and appropriate funding based on our American priorities and values. And they have done that by passing bi-partisan legislation to address border security. The President’s actions today upend the constitutional authority given to our elected officials.”
LIRS urges Congress to push back on the national emergency declaration and stand firm against the border wall.
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Founded in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is one of the largest immigration and refugee resettlement agencies in the United States, and only one of two agencies that helped reunite children with parents after family separations. LIRS is nationally recognized for its leadership working with and advocating for refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration and other vulnerable populations. Through 80 years of service and advocacy, LIRS has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America.
Thank you for this powerful and clear statement from LIRS.
New President and CEO Vignarajah has stepped into this role at
an incredibly challenging time and had chosen to see the challenge
as opportunity to speak as advocate for the most vulnerable.
Thank you again,
Your partner in service,
Albert
You speak from a Constitutional stand. Good. You also speak as one whose refugee parents fled terror to a country that held the promise of no such terror. Glad you are on board here with LIRS, with those two factors influencing your decisions and actions. Americans need help fighting terror, here in our own minds and hearts, and abroad, with compassion.
Thanks for your strong statement opposing the Trump Administrations Declaration of a National Emergency at the border with Mexico and the diversion of Federal Funds from other much needed programs to build a wall dividing our countries.
I am grateful for your bold statements to push back on the fake national emergency. I live in Tucson Arizona and just returned from south of the US border(Mexico). There is no emergency. I have volunteered to help asylum seekers from Central America and am proud of our faith community that has come together to welcome, feed, clothe and transport sometimes 100 people a day. Thank you LIRS for being a true leader in speaking out constitutionally and with humanitarian concern about social injustice.
Welcome!
According to clear biblical teaching, the stranger or alien or foreigner (choose your term) who accepts and lives according to our laws (the Law of Moses in Ancient Israel) should be welcomed and treated with respect and hospitality. To brand such people as mostly criminals is untrue, unjust, and cruel.