New York, NY – Statement of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten following reports that the Trump administration is unfairly deporting foreign-born children who have been granted special immigration status for medical treatment:
The AFT’s Weingarten said: “First, he separated families. Then he threw children in cages without food, water or showers. And now, in his cruelest move yet, Donald Trump is signing death sentences by deporting children with cancer and other illnesses, and in some cases deporting the parents of their sick and dying kids, leaving children alone in their most vulnerable hour. Just when you thought the callousness couldn’t get worse, Trump rose to the occasion and proposed the unimaginable.
“The long-standing legal practice of medical deferred action has been used by this country to show compassion and humanity, keeping families together when children are critically ill and will die if they are deported. Sadly, as we have come to find out, humanity is not in Trump’s lexicon. As the families of these sick children look desperately for answers to keep those children alive, let the history books show that Trump led the charge to promote this depraved indifference to children’s lives.”
