LatinoJustice PRLDEF Launches Campaign Demanding the Acceleration of the Impeachment Process Given the Vicious Rhetoric and Actions of U.S. President Against Latinxs in the United States
Contact: Elianne Ramos, [email protected], 212-739-7513
Campaign Contends the President’s Words Put Latinx Lives at Risk; his Actions Constitute Clear Human Rights Violations
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a public interest law organization based in the U.S. that works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice, today released an online campaign calling for the acceleration of Impeachment proceedings against Donald J. Trump.
The online campaign, #LATINX4IMPEACHMENT, calls for Latinxs to put pressure on their representatives in the Congress to support and speed up the impeachment of the president on the basis of hateful rhetoric that can incite violence against Latinos and the implementation of cruel and unwarranted human rights violations against immigrants detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The racist attack in El Paso, Texas in August is a Latinx reason to demand impeachment. The President does not only spew and condone hate. He has built a campaign and policy platform that targets, criminalizes, dehumanizes and incites violence towards Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Inhumane immigrant prisons proliferate because of his zero tolerance policies. Latino immigrant children are ripped from their mothers because he exacerbates the criminal prosecution of migration,” said Juan Cartagena, President and General Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “To ensure the safety of our communities, the impeachment process against the President cannot linger because the lives of Latinxs in the United States are at risk,” he concluded.
THE CAMPAIGN’S DEMANDS TO THE HOUSE AND SENATE:
- Accelerate impeachment proceedings against Trump, as well as his removal from office
- Publicly condemn the use of rhetoric and inflammatory language against Latinos and other groups by the President, that nurtures the growing wave of hate crimes in the country
- Hold the President accountable for the human rights violations being committed
THE CASE FOR ACCELERATING IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS
From the moment he announced his bid for the presidency, the President has openly repeated thinly veiled racial slurs against Latino residents, immigrants and other ethnic groups, advocated for illegal use of force by law enforcement and border patrol, and come to the defense of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. These extremist groups are increasingly emboldened by the President’s racist rhetoric, sometimes to the point of mass violence, as was the case of the recent shooting at El Paso. In fact, according to a survey sponsored by Giffords and the Latino Victory Project, eighty-one percent of Latino voters in Texas are concerned about racism-motivated gun violence, and that the Latino community might be targeted again in attacks similar to the mass shooting in El Paso. The most recent data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a sharp uptick in hate crimes since Trump was elected President, eleven percent of which have targeted Latinos. Despite the President’s deliberate attempts to minimize the true danger of white supremacist violence, the federal government just announced it would finally address “domestic terrorism” as a matter of national security – a response that was long overdue.
In the two months since the attack in El Paso, the President has done virtually nothing: he read from a teleprompter once, posed jubilantly with the family of an orphaned child, and failed to address the danger of being Latinx in America. Inciting violence is tantamount to the impeachable offenses of high crimes and misdemeanors set forth in Article II, section 4 of the Constitution. Heads of State cannot employ the rhetoric of violence against their own citizens and residents with a callous disregard over its dangerous consequences. The President must be held accountable under the law, through the impeachment process.
The fear of living while brown in the U.S. is not limited to the border states in the country – but it is especially palpable there. Illegal detention of Latino immigrants, the separation of children at the border, the failure to follow due legal process for detainees, and the heartless cruelty inflicted upon immigrants at detention centers by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) occur daily. ICE representatives consistently abduct children as young as newborns and place them in inhumane conditions without parental or adult supervision. Their intentional neglect and punishment has been widely reported and has resulted in the deaths of 24 immigrant adults and children at these immigrant prisons. Additionally, detainees are subsequently held under substandard living conditions, frequently facing ill-treatment with no recognizable right to an attorney.
For more information about the #Latinx4Impeachment campaign and to support our efforts, visit www.bit.ly/LATINX4IMPEACHMENT
ABOUT LATINOJUSTICE
LatinoJustice PRLDEF works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice, by empowering our community and by fostering leadership through advocacy and education. For more than 40 years, LatinoJustice PRLDEF has acted as an advocate against injustices throughout New York and beyond. To learn more about LatinoJustice, visit www.latinojustice.org.
Background Documents
- Urge your representative to accelerate impeachment proceedings!
- El Paso: A Reason for the Latinx Community to Push for Impeachment, by Juan Cartagena, President and General Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF
- El Paso, una razón para que los latinxs presionen por la destitución de Trump, in Spanish