After launch of broad-based civil rights effort to ensure accountability for those responsible for child separation, group calls Nielsen’s resignation a “moral test”
WASHINGTON — Moments after Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned, a new progressive accountability campaign calls on Fortune 500 CEOs, university presidents, and speaking agencies to deny her refuge in their boardrooms or corner offices.
“Secretary Nielsen’s work planning, defending and implementing the family separation policy crossed a line. Her resignation represents a dramatic moral test for those at the helm of our country’s most influential institutions,” said Karl Frisch, a spokesperson for Restore Public Trust. “Almost one year to the day since the Trump administration announced their ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy, it is the moral responsibility of Fortune 500 CEOs, university presidents, and others to send a clear signal that this administration’s conduct has crossed a line and refuse to associate with her – or her colleagues.”
Last Friday, more than three dozen progressive groups launched TrumpAdminSeparation.org detailing current and former administration officials who were instrumental in planning, implementing, and defending the policy. Today’s New York Times features a hard-hitting, full-page ad calling on CEOs to ostracize these officials from their businesses.
View the New York Times ad HERE and read the open letter to America’s CEOs HERE. Sign the petition HERE, calling on CEOs to make clear that they will not hire for employment, contract for consulting, or seat on their boards anyone involved with the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
Two weeks ago, Nielsen asked Congress for new authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children more quickly and to hold families seeking asylum in detention for longer than currently permitted. In Congressional testimony earlier in March, she dodged basic questions on the Trump administration’s horrific family separation policy and feigned ignorance on basic information. Under questioning from Democratic committee members, many of whom stated that they had simple requests for information ignored in recent months, Sec. Nielsen was defiant and took great pains to defend the indefensible.
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