For Immediate Release:
October 9, 2017
MEDIA CONTACT:
Danielle Bernard
dbernard@lirs.org; 410-230-2888
WASHINGTON, DC – Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) condemns the Trump Administration’s attempt to use DREAMers as leverage to call for a border wall, strip trafficking protections from unaccompanied children, legalize indefinite detention of immigrants, separate families, and crack down on sanctuary cities, in their recently released immigration principles.
“This not a business deal in which some would pit one against another for short-term gain. We are talking about the lives and well-being of hundreds of thousands of our young neighbors and the communities that have welcomed them.” said Linda Hartke, President and CEO of LIRS.
“Our faith calls upon us to welcome the stranger, but these young men and women are not strangers. Communities nationwide have embraced them. DREAMers are Americans in every imaginable form except one: a piece of paper. They are our present and our future. To use them as leverage to cut a deal is against everything we stand for as Americans. We can and must do better as a country.”
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Founded in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is the second largest refugee resettlement agency in the United States. It is nationally recognized for its leadership advocating with refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration and other vulnerable populations. Through more than 75 years of service and advocacy, LIRS has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America.