Dozens of Jewish organizations have signed an open letter to President Donald Trump protesting his planned mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The letter, published on Jan. 27, demonstrates that as Trump retakes office, a range of major Jewish organizations intend to continue to be vocal in opposing his policies on immigration. The signatories include a range of centrist and liberal Jewish groups with a national presence, including the leadership of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist religious movements. Dozens of local Jewish groups and institutions also signed.
“[W]e write in opposition to your Administration’s plans to launch mass deportations, build massive detention camps, and conduct sweeping raids,” the letter says. “We urge you to chart a different course and change your stated plans for widespread persecution of immigrants. America has long prided itself on being a place of refuge, a beacon of hope for those fleeing persecution and seeking a better life.”
The letter comes as the Trump administration has begun immigration arrests in Chicago and is conscripting the military to deport migrants.
Immigration has historically been an issue of concern for American Jews, many of whom are descended from families that arrived in the United States around the turn of the 20th century, if not later. The letter notes that American Jewry has historically been supportive of immigrant rights.
“Jewish families — past and present, here and elsewhere — know what it is to live in fear for the immediate and long-term safety of our families,” the letter says. “We have been forced to flee, denied access to safety, scapegoated, detained, and exploited. This history and our Jewish values make immigration policy – including ensuring a functioning and welcoming refugee program and protection of the right to seek asylum – deeply personal to the Jewish community.”
When Trump began his first term in 2017, immigration was an animating, and relatively unifying, issue for many U.S. Jewish groups. Groups representing all four major Jewish religious movements opposed his travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries as well as his policy of separating families detained at the border. Jewish groups challenged immigration actions in court, protested at immigration facilities and volunteered and fundraised to aid migrants.
Since then, some major Jewish groups that spoke out during Trump’s first term have become less vocal about immigration. A number of major Jewish groups declined to comment on President Joe Biden’s order last June that effectively shut down the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of those groups also did not sign Monday’s letter.
The letter also opposed a Trump order last week allowing immigration officers to make arrests at houses of worship. “Proposed changes to the immigration policy, including allowing immigration authorities to enter sacred spaces, only serve to exacerbate feelings of fear, panic, and insecurity. People should be able to come together in peace and worship without fear of deportation, detention, or harassment,” it said.
Other signatories included the progressive group Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the Chicago Board of Rabbis, the Jewish refugee aid group HIAS, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Women International, the liberal Israel lobby J Street, the Jewish LGBTQ group Keshet, National Council of Jewish Women and the liberal rabbinic human rights group T’ruah. Jewish Community Relations Councils in eight cities also signed.
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