Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) released the following statement calling on the Trump Administration to accept Democratic proposals to re-open government and stop using immigrant communities as pawns in their negotiations to end the shutdown.

Federal workers impacted by the shutdown have now missed two paychecks.

In response, CBC Chair Representative Karen Bass (D-CA) and CBC Immigration Task Force Chair Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) released the following statements:

“Right now families across America are unable to pay their rent and struggling to feed their children while being forced to work for free because of Donald Trump’s shutdown,” said CBC Chairwoman Bass. “The pain and suffering of these families could end right now, if the President would simply support our efforts to re-open the government and work with us on a long-term solution to reform our immigration system. President Trump needs to immediately stop holding our federal workers hostage and treating immigrant communities as pawns so that we can end this shutdown.”

CBC Immigration Task Force Chair Yvette Clarke added:

“Our nation is facing very perilous times due in large part to the crises Donald Trump manufactured through his heartless executive orders in his earliest days in office. Starting with the Muslim ban, ending DACA, the rescinding of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of foreign nationals, who over decades have become an integral part of our families and communities.  Add to all of this the reckless and cruel policy of separating children from their parents on the Southern US borders coupled with the detention of thousands of unaccompanied minors. It is obvious that the Trump Administration intends to pursue a xenophobic and racist campaign against immigrants of color. 

“The Trump-McConnell Bill is not the answer we need to address the need for a 21st Century immigration system. By holding 800,000 federal workers and their families hostage, it is clear that Donald Trump will stop at nothing to advance his anti-immigrant agenda and this is no way to govern. The Trump-McConnell Bill would place our communities in jeopardy – leaving our most vulnerable populations in limbo and their lives in a state of perpetual profound uncertainty.

“This proposal is nothing short of an extortion tactic put forward by Trump couched by his definition of "humanitarian assistance". In reality, it eviscerates our asylum system – making it incredibly difficult for individuals to seek and receive asylum.  This newly proposed program would not take effect for another year. Additionally, it adds new restrictions that put children seeking asylum in danger.

“The CBC supports a clean immigration bill that would permanently protect DACA and TPS recipients by giving them a pathway to citizenship. We will not cave in to the unreasonable and immoral demand to fund a $5.7 billion dollar wall that Donald Trump promised his political supporters that Mexico would pay for.”