Washington, D.C. — On Wednesday August 8, NBC News reported that the Trump Administration is pursuing plans to make it more difficult for immigrants who have followed legal immigration processes to obtain citizenship or a green card.
The new policy is reported to exclude from access to citizenship those people who have participated in social programs including the Affordable Care Act or received food assistance programs like SNAP, even if they have followed all existing legal guidance toward pursuing citizenship status.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune issued the following statement:
“It should be clear by now that the Trump Administration’s xenophobic policies and attacks on those seeking a better life in this country are by no means limited to those people he and his cabinet have already unjustly targeted.
The same people responsible for tearing families apart and endangering borderlands communities are now threatening the longstanding process whereby people become citizens of this country. And Trump is not only targeting people on the basis of their immigrant status, but also on the basis of their poverty.
Anyone who ever took part in sensible social programs like the Affordable Care Act could now be excluded from citizenship, in an ugly attack on workers and low-income families.
“The Sierra Club fights to protect the natural and human environment, and that is why we rise together in solidarity with all those threatened by the Trump administration, and why we will continue to make our voices heard.
Protecting our communities and our environment go hand-in-hand, and everyone who values a just and free United States should continue to resist hateful actions like this one.”
About Sierra Club
Founded by legendary conservationist John Muir in 1892, the Sierra Club is now the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization — with three million members and supporters. Our successes range from protecting millions of acres of wilderness to helping pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. More recently, we’ve made history by leading the charge to move away from the dirty fossil fuels that cause climate disruption and toward a clean energy economy.
