In response to the slew of executive actions announced by President Trump shortly after his inauguration as 47th President of the United States, Amnesty International USA has responded specifically to two in particular: Trump’s calling for mass deportations of people seeking safety and his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

Immigration and refugee rights

Amy Fischer, Director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, said:

“Barely a couple of hours into his second term, President Trump is already seeking to implement his harmful, racist, anti-immigrant agenda with these executive actions. 

“President Trump’s National Emergency Declaration turns the white nationalist ‘Great Replacement Theory’ into federal policy. To be clear, reinstating cruel border policies, ending rights enshrined in the Constitution like birthright citizenship, shutting down the CBP One application, and implementing targeted raids across the United States, not only sows chaos and fear among communities across the country and people attempting to seek safety in the US, it perpetuates false narratives and harm rooted in white supremacy. 

“The Trump administration believes our immigrant neighbours shouldn’t be here.  And after President Biden eroded the rights of people seeking safety, President Trump’s promises to further crack down on asylum will only exacerbate the chaos across the country and the humanitarian crisis at the border. 

“People are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table. Yet President Trump’s response is to blame immigrants and people seeking safety for problems that he and other leaders are failing to address. 

“Brave, resilient families and individuals arrive to the US to exercise their right to seek safety, to seek a new life, to pursue their dreams, and contribute to their new communities. They are met by a broken system that prolongs and profits off their suffering.  

“President Trump’s fearmongering scapegoats immigrants for the political failures of our elected leaders. Those seeking safety and a better life in the US are not the cause of the housing, climate, or opioid crises, or rising costs at the grocery store – policymakers are. 

“We must put a stop to the years-long trend of playing politics and stoking fear with people’s lives to facilitate the adoption of increasingly draconian border and immigration policies that violate the human rights of people seeking safety, fuel violence against Black, brown, and Indigenous communities across the US, and exacerbate the dysfunction of our already beleaguered immigration system. 

“Solutions that abide by human rights obligations, include the voices and experiences of impacted communities, allow our immigrant neighbours to access a pathway to citizenship, and respect the shared strength that comes from welcoming people seeking safety are effective, fair, and ultimately save taxpayer dollars to be reinvested in policies and programs that lift up all of our communities.

“Amnesty International will continue to document human rights abuses, advocate for the human rights of all immigrants and people seeking safety in the United States, and hold US government officials accountable.”

Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

In response to President Trump signing an Executive Order to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said:

“The climate crisis is one of the most pervasive threats to human rights today, leading to famine, refugee and other humanitarian crises, poverty and homelessness across the globe.

“President Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement again will cause harm to communities across the globe. While the world’s most marginalised people will continue to be the hardest hit, we don’t need to look farther than the fires in California or the flooding in North Carolina to understand that the climate crisis is here and is directly harming all of us. 

“As one of the world’s largest carbon emitters, the US has a responsibility to lead the way in ditching fossil fuels and supporting the worldwide transition to zero carbon economies. By refusing to join the international community in taking the necessary steps to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, President Trump is skirting that responsibility. Worse yet, such a move will only encourage other leaders to follow suit. 

“While President Trump’s decision is reckless and destructive, the US government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement does not mean that people throughout the United States are abandoning the global effort to mitigate the climate crisis. Nearly two-thirds of adults in the country are concerned about global warming, and state and local governments will continue to step up to fill the gap left by the Trump administration and deliver the climate action that their constituents are demanding. For instance, we’re already seeing legislative efforts to hold corporations accountable for the environmental damage they cause, efforts to cap carbon emissions and put limits on fracking, and rules for ensuring that new construction is less polluting and more climate resilient. These efforts are a credit to the tireless work of activists to advance climate positive policies across the US, regardless of which politicians are in power. 

“The Paris Agreement and other multilateral instruments by no means provide the perfect answers to the climate crisis. But they provide a means for the lowest income and most at risk countries that are the least responsible for the climate crisis to have a say alongside the higher income countries that are most responsible for the crisis. We will not cease advocating for it and other just solutions to the climate crisis. 

“We will continue to advocate for just solutions to the climate crisis to ensure a rapid, equitable and transition to zero carbon economies that reduce inequalities and protect human rights. There will be no climate justice without human rights.”