Leading Advocacy Organizations Deliver More Than 300,000 Signatures in Petition Against Family Separation

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), Latin America Working Group, Al Otro Lado, Alianza Americas, Amnesty International USA, Kids in Need of Defense, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, MomsRising, National Immigrant Justice Center, CREDO, MoveOn, and Church World Service gathered at the Capitol to deliver 320,000 names from petitions speaking out against the Trump administration’s policies on family separation. The petitions are in response to a series of actions by the Trump administration to punish and attempt to deter asylum seekers by separating families at the border.

Attorney General Sessions announced in April the adoption of a so-called “zero tolerance” policy at the United States-Mexico border regarding immigrants and even asylum-seekers that cross into the country without authorization. The policy has resulted in hundreds of families – many of whom are seeking asylum – torn apart without any mechanisms to reunite, leaving parents and children severely traumatized and undermining their ability to make an asylum claim.

In response, WRC launched a petition earlier this year and called on the Trump administration to end its barbaric practice of ripping families apart.

Senior policy advisor Katharina Obser of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at WRC made the following statement:

“Today, we present the voices of opposition of more than 300,000 people across the country that are standing up against the cruel practice of separating children and families at our border. We should be working to keep families together and facilitating their access to a fair and just asylum system, especially those who have already endured so much trauma and stress, instead of inflicting more harm by tearing them apart. Communities across the country are standing up for these families and demanding that the Trump administration end this unconscionable policy immediately.”