Immigrant Rights Groups Ready to Challenge President-Elect Trump’s Policies

Immigrant-rights organizations from across the country are resolute on one thing: they will fight back against any of President-elect Donald Trump’s policies that target migrants.

Trump won the electoral college and the popular vote — the first time for a Republican since 2004. He made immigration a major part of his campaign, and he vowed to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without authorization.

Trump is also expected to target the U.S.’s refugee resettlement program and has said he would end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally.

“We’ve been preparing — we have the legal tools, we have the advocacy tools and, more importantly, we have people,” said Maribel Hernández Rivera, the director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration at the ACLU.

She called Trump’s proposals “cruel,” adding, “we are ready” to challenge Trump’s policies.

Murad Awawdeh, the president of the New York Immigration Coalition, told NPR the country “already survived one Trump administration, and we believe that we are preparing ourselves to do it yet again.”

Awawdeh is looking at a three-prong approach: protests, local legislation, and lawsuits. Rights groups are also stepping up ‘known your rights’ trainings.“This time I feel that we are better prepared and know what to expect and are ready to fight his racist deportation agenda with our members and allies,” he said.

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Rights groups have crafted a federal advocacy plan while the ACLU state chapters have been working on a strategy to create a firewall from the Trump administration. She also said the organization is also ready to mobilize its four million members to “protect immigrants.”

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