SEARAC strongly denounces yesterday’s deportation of eight individuals, including a Laotian and Vietnamese American, to South Sudan and the clear violation of their due process rights. The Trump Administration broke the law by deporting these individuals, ignoring a federal court order that required DHS to fulfill their legal rights. DHS neglected to provide the deported individuals with their legal rights before deporting them.
Below, Quyên Đinh, Executive Director of SEARAC, responds:
“The President and the Department of Homeland Security are not above the law. These deportations are a dangerous evolution in how the President and Department of Homeland Security are attacking American communities. The deportations of eight individuals to South Sudan are illegal, inhumane, and in contempt of the Constitution. This flight continues this Administration’s dangerous, ongoing refusal to respect the courts and legal rulings that try to stop unlawful, anti-immigrant actions.”
“South Sudan is experiencing such extreme violence that the US State Department has ordered diplomatic staff to leave the country. Instead of embracing core American values around keeping families together and giving everyone a second chance, this administration is deporting people into a country on the brink of civil war. Southeast Asians are in the United States because we allied with this country and were forced to flee violence, political persecution, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. It is unconscionable that this administration is deporting people who have already served their sentences, are important members of their communities, and whose families have once escaped these very conditions.”
“These actions are a stark reminder that no one is fully protected from state violence at this moment. The administration is unrelenting in escalating how and whom it targets. Congress must act: it must uphold American values, echo the courts, and demand the return of everyone illegally deported to South Sudan, as well as to El Salvador, Panama, Libya, and other countries. And it must stop funding these unlawful deportations by rejecting the budget reconciliation package that trades billions from critical safety nets to massively expand immigration enforcement.”
Take Action: Contact Your Representative Today
Take three minutes to tell your elected representatives in Congress to stop funding these illegal flights and oppose increasing immigration enforcement by voting NO on the reconciliation bill.
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