WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the following statement regarding two executive orders President Trump signed today:
“These executive actions are wasteful, ineffective, and contrary to some of our most cherished American values -- and they won’t fix our broken immigration system.
“When I was mayor of Newark, we became the first city in New Jersey to reject the dysfunctional policy President Trump is now forcing on cities. We found that using local police to detain suspected undocumented immigrants who committed nonviolent crimes wasted our limited resources, distracted officers from fighting serious crimes, and chilled residents’ cooperation with law enforcement.
“Building a 2,000-mile wall on the southern border and pretending that Mexico will somehow pay for it is another waste that will prove ineffective and leave American taxpayers holding the bill. Constructing new prisons, private or otherwise, to warehouse immigrants—many of whom are women and children fleeing horrible violence—will only waste additional taxpayer dollars, increase mass incarceration, and is just plain wrong.
“Coercing state and local officials into enforcing federal immigration laws, and allowing people to be detained merely on the suspicion of violating such laws, would endanger individuals’ fundamental rights and liberties.
“People across party lines from all over the country agree that our broken immigration system needs to be fixed. Repairing our immigration system will require bipartisan consensus on thoughtful, common sense solutions -- not executive decrees that are inconsistent with our principles and don’t advance American security or prosperity.”