DPCC Co-Chair Cicilline Slams President Trump for Use of Offensive Slur, Says President’s Actions Threaten America’s World Standing
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on CNN's At This Hour to denounce President Trump's use of an offensive slur describing Haitian and African immigrants. Instead of working with Democrats on a bipartisan compromise, Cicilline said President Trump's actions threaten America's global leadership. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video.
Click here to watch the video
"The reality is that the TPS program has made the determination that it is unsafe or impossible for people to return home either because it is unsafe or because of a natural disaster. We have a long tradition of being a country that accepts people so long that they continue to contribute and be productive residents of our country. And the President just doing this for really no good reason other than he felt like it and causing incredible disruption in the lives of some many families across this country it's a part of the Presidents effort to appeal to his political base rather than to promote good public policy.
"We have about 800,000 Dreamers in the country. These are young people who came as infants with their parents and are working now, in school, or serving in our military who really don't know no other country but America, and they are citizens in every way but for a piece of paper. Their making incredible contributions to our country. And I think overwhelmingly, the American people recognize we need to take care of the dreamers and what we should be doing is moving quickly to pass the Dream Act, I think there is bipartisan support for it. But what the President does by making these sort of statements, is it disrupts this process and we now spend days focusing on these horrible comments from the President about what his real attitude about immigrants and immigration reform and the Dreamers. When the President of the United States makes comments like this it undermines our relationships, and ultimately can undermine our position in the world and the relationships that are necessary to keep us safe, keep our economy growing and promote America's interest around the world. It also, you know, diminishes our standing in the world as a country that respects basic human rights and shares universal values of human dignity and the value of every human being and it's very, very damaging."