Xenophobia Will Not Save Our Children and Families From COVID-19 Crisis:
TCP Rebukes New Anti-Family, Anti-Immigrant Executive Order
[Los Angeles, CA] The Children’s Partnership is deeply disheartened by the new anti-family, anti-immigrant executive order signed by President Trump yesterday evening. The federal administration continues to needlessly keep families apart, most recently by banning immigrants under a false guise of public health and economic concerns.
We support a nation where all are truly equal, immigration is recognized as a strength, and individuals have access to the essentials of life without regard to where they were born. Children in immigrant families are our present and our future: half of all children in California have at least one immigrant parent. Across the country, one in four children are part of an immigrant family.
Our past research identified a negative and harmful environment for children in immigrant families even before today’s public health crisis. The federal administration’s approach to immigration policy is harming children’s mental, oral, and physical health while also impeding access to health care, education, and other vital services. Its response to COVID-19 is only worsening these harms for immigrant families, their children and millions of others.
Millions of immigrant parents are on the front lines of this crisis, risking their lives to care for our health, food, hygiene and loved ones. We owe them a better show of thanks than obstructing their ability to reunify with their families.
This executive order would block most family reunification efforts for 60 days, but does not affect those coming to work in essential COVID-related sectors like health providers or farmworkers. It is a heartless act to mine immigrants for their utility while denying them their humanity and claiming protection of the American people.
We will not be distracted from what will truly protect America’s children and families: economic relief for working families, improved health care access, and life-saving safety net supports.
We continue to call upon the federal government to end its policies that keep families apart and focus on those that bring us together. Xenophobia will not save our children and families from the impacts of this crisis: bolstering support for our collective wellbeing just might.
