Hawai‘i is home to tens of thousands of federal workers. We’re also home to refugees and DACA recipients. In his statement today, the President is using their lives as poker chips in his bid to secure billions for a wall that doesn’t stand the independent scrutiny of Congress or the American people.
The courts have already provided a temporary fix for DACA by preventing President Trump’s bid to start deporting Dreamers. People in Hawai'i and nationwide demand a permanent solution — which today’s proposal utterly fails to provide. Tying the reopening of government to a policy proposal — from either party — is a perversion of our constitutional system and should not be encouraged. The President is holding all of us hostage for a $5.7 billion ransom.
This administration must stop using Dreamers, refugees, and federal workers as game pieces.
This longest ever — and increasingly dangerous — government shutdown should end now. There is a crisis at the border, but it’s the one the President created by separating thousands of families, caging children, and lying about the extent of it all. Keeping over 800,000 working Americans from getting paid – including thousands of Hawai'i families – won’t fix that."
