Trump to Send National Guard to Southern Border

Washington, D.C.—In response to President Trump’s plan to send National Guard troops to the border, Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer released the following statement:

“President Trump is shamelessly manufacturing a crisis in order to tout his extreme anti-immigrant agenda. The potential arrival of some asylum seekers at the southern border is not a threat to national security and does not require a military response; rather, these are men, women, and children escaping violence and persecution in their home countries in an attempt to live in safety with their families.

“This ‘crisis’ is nothing more than an elaborate PR stunt by the White House to further an extreme and bigoted agenda.

“Instead of using the threat of military might to block refugees from seeking this country’s protection, the president should address any arrival of asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle of Central America and, more recently, Venezuela, in ways that are consistent with U.S. refugee protection and human rights treaties, setting a strong example for other countries who face much larger refugee and displacement crises.”