June 21, 2018 Statement on Family Separation

Women’s Funds and Foundations across the U.S. and beyond condemn the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy and the continued detention of immigrant families. While the new executive order issued by the Trump Administration will pause the practice of separating immigrant families at the border, ending family separations without ending the “zero tolerance” policy means that women, children and families will continue to be charged criminally, held in inhumane detention facilities and refused refuge in the United States.

This policy is cruel, punitive and unnecessary. And it is a choice. This administration has chosen to target immigrant families of color for traumatic detention and deportation. It has chosen to have zero empathy or compassion for people fleeing violence and seeking safety in the United States. It has chosen to put young children at risk of trauma and harm in detention facilities.

We believe in the right to parent your children in safe communities, without fear of violence from individuals or governments. Immigrant justice is reproductive justice, and immigrant rights are women’s rights.

We call on the Trump administration to make a new choice; to end the “zero tolerance” policy, to end the detention and deportation of immigrant families.

Signed:
Boston Women’s Fund
Chester County Fund for Women and Girls
Chicago Foundation for Women
Chrysalis Foundation
Dallas Women’s Foundation
Fondo Semillas
Global Fund for Women
International Women’s Health Coalition
Iowa Women’s Foundation
Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York
Maine Women’s Fund
New Hampshire Women’s Foundation
New York Women’s Foundation
NewMexicoWomen.org
Rise Up
Rockflower Partners Inc
Rosa, the UK Fund for Women and Girls
Shadhika
Sojourner Foundation
Solidago Foundation
Spark
Tewa
The Community Fund for Women & Girls, New Haven, CT
The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation
Urgent Action Fund
Vermont Women’s Fund
Washington Area Women’s Foundation
Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis
Women’s Foundation of California
Women’s Foundation of Colorado
Women’s Foundation of Florida
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona
Women’s Fund of Hawaii
Women’s Fund of Omaha
Women’s Fund of Rhode Island
Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts