Yesterday, the House passed a dangerous bill that will give a further $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights condemned this bill, warning that it will fund a surge in detentions and deportations that destroy due process and tear apart communities.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, said:
“Congress’s approval of this bill is an utter betrayal of our Jewish and human values. ICE has proven to be a harmful force in our communities, killing bystanders, racially profiling citizens, and kidnapping people off the streets. ICE has torn apart families, made children afraid to go to school, and created a climate of fear. To reward this agency with even more funding without guardrails would create chaos and rights violations of unimaginable proportions.
“ICE’s budget for many years stayed at $10 billion before the reconciliation process last year raised its available funds significantly. Now, ICE’s budget alone rivals some countries’ entire military spending. This administration has let ICE’s violence and terror go on without accountability and proper oversight, and now Congress has given the agency carte blanche to continue its brutal and violent program. It is incomprehensible that while families are struggling with everyday expenses, House leadership is dangerously undermining congressional authority and oversight by bypassing proper processes to fund more immigration enforcement. $70 billion could provide essential services to millions of people in need, including children.
“The amendment creating a $350 million slush fund for enforcement operations in ‘noncooperative’ cities, or sanctuary jurisdictions, is particularly troubling. This clear attack on the administration’s political enemies will decimate local governments’ ability to protect our immigrant neighbors and only add to the existing climate of terror.
“Right now, rabbis and cantors in New Jersey are joining the protests outside Delaney Hall, where people being detained are on hunger strike to demand ICE release medically vulnerable, elderly, pregnant, and young detainees, and to demand due process for their cases. They are also drawing attention to the horrendous conditions in the facility. More funding for ICE incentivizes more of these violations of basic rights and normalizes holding people under deplorable conditions.
“When it comes to how human beings should treat people from another place, we find the answer in our tradition. According to Midrash, God created the first person out of dust from the four corners of the earth so that ‘every place a person goes, a part of them is from there and a part of them is returning there.’ (Yalkut Shimoni 13:2) God formed human beings knowing they would move from place to place during their lives, and our very bones testify to our shared belonging. That is the bar, and we refuse to let President Trump and his allies in Congress lower it.
“Congress’s passage of this bill is shameful. We thank the senators and representatives who stood with us and voted against this horrible bill. We will continue to fight for a humane and just immigration system that respects the dignity of immigrants.”
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T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.