U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) released the following statement Wednesday after a series of revelations about immigration policies the Trump administration intends to implement:

On Friday, news broke of plans to ramp up immigrant detention with a 500 percent increase in the number of beds at for-profit detention facilities. By Monday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly confirmed that DHS is considering a policy of separating immigrant parents from their children at our southern border. And on Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the administration is weighing cuts to the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to pay for Trump's $21 billion border wall.

"Over the past five days, President Trump has demonstrated a willingness to dehumanize the most vulnerable among us, and no hesitation at endangering the public for the sake of his feckless wall," Grijalva said. "While any decent person would balk in disgust at the notion of ripping a scared child from the arms of their mother, or at blatant profiteering from human captivity, Trump seems perfectly happy to make this all part of his brand."

"Trump's contempt for immigrants is pathetic, and his lack of compassion for fellow human beings is unbecoming of the office he holds. Cruelty aside, his willingness to siphon funds away from the Coast Guard, FEMA and the TSA to pay for his border wall – a wall that every independent analysis has said will fail – is reckless enough that it should be criminal. Trump is chipping away at our Coast Guard while his buddy Vladimir Putin has a spy ship sitting 30 miles off our East Coast. He's undermining FEMA's ability to address natural disasters while doing everything in his power to accelerate the impacts of global warming. And in the most distasteful display of irony in recent recollection, he's pulling money away from airport security to build a wall in the middle of the desert. One of Trump's cronies should remind him that none of the 9/11 hijackers came across our southern border, but all of them went through airport security."

"It's time for this president to find reality. The time for giving him the benefit of the doubt is over; the time for hoping he will change has past. This is who Donald Trump is – an immigrant-hating narcissist who would rather endanger our nation than see one of his reckless campaign promises fail. SAD!!!"

U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva represents Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.

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