}

As people of faith, we object in the strongest terms to President Trump’s comments disparaging our family in Haiti, El Salvador and Africa. Though we speak from many faiths, we share a belief that all people are made by God and have inherent dignity. No group of people should be dehumanized - especially in shameful, vulgar and demeaning ways.

We stand with our families, friends, neighbors and congregants from these regions. We pledge to resist the explicit white supremacy in President Trump’s comments. We also pledge to resist the policies that institutionalize this racism - ending Temporary Protective Status for Haitians and Salvadorans and refusing to negotiate in good faith for the 800,000 Dreamers who will be at risk of deportation very soon. Together, these policies show a clear intent to remake America as a whiter and less compassionate country. 

We pray that the values of dignity for all humanity will become central to our national dialogue. With Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose prophetic life we commemorate this weekend, we declare that we “will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”