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For Immediate Release
February, 13 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,press@credoaction.com
CREDO Calls on Democrats to Reject "Fundamentally Bad Deal" That Is "An Attack on Immigrant Communities"
WASHINGTON
CREDO released the following statement on the government funding deal reached by the conference committee:
"This fundamentally bad deal represents an attack on immigrant communities and their allies and a gift to Trump and his deportation force," CREDO Action Co-Director Heidi Hess said. "It is a betrayal of immigrant communities and the Democratic Party's progressive base."
"It is a failure of Democratic leadership that we got a "deal" that provides funding for Trump's border wall and increases the number of people ICE is allowed to hold in detention," she continued. "The failure to explicitly block ICE from continuing to reprogram funds amounts to handing this rogue agency a blank check to detain far more people than Congress has explicitly authorized."
"After a month-long standoff in which Democrats gained the upper hand by standing united against Trump's hostage taking, Democrats have now failed to deliver on their promises to protect immigrants," Hess said. "Before voting, all Democrats should know that a vote for this deal is a vote to propel Trump's racist agenda forward and sanction his attacks on immigrants and communities of color."
In recent weeks CREDO members have made more than 15,000 phone calls to congressional offices urging congress to fund the government without providing funding for Trump's border wall or ICE.
CREDO has also donated more than $800,000 to leading immigrant rights groups including United We Dream, America's Voice, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, National Immigration Law Center, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, National Council of La Raza, Mijente, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Migrant Legal Action Program, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Detention Watch Network and American Immigration Law Foundation.
CREDO Action, part of CREDO Mobile, is a social change network of over five million activists, sending tens of millions of petition signatures and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to decision-makers each year. CREDO Action members also participate in meetings, protests and other direct action for progressive change.
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Progressives were left fuming and flummoxed over reporting Friday that Rahm Emanuel is considering running for chair of the Democratic National Committee, with many leftists wondering whether the party has learned anything from its loss of the White House, Senate, and, arguably, the country's working-class voters.
Axiosfirst reported that Emanuel—President Joe Biden's ambassador to Japan and a former congressman, Chicago mayor, and chief of staff to former President Barack Obama—is mulling whether to seek the top DNC post. Current DNC chair Jamie Harrison, who was elected to the post in 2021, is unlikely to seek a new term, which would begin in March.
Emanuel has some powerful backers among the war-and-Wall Street wing that has dominated the Democratic party for decades.
"If they said, 'Well, what should we do? Who should lead the party?' I would take Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, and I would bring him back from Japan, and I would appoint him chairman of the Democratic National Committee," prominent political consultant David Axelrod, who ran both of Obama's successful presidential campaigns, said Wednesday on his podcast.
Axelrod followed up the next day with a post on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, in which he wrote of Emanuel, "Dude knows how to fight and win."
Reaction came fast and furious, with Jonathan Cohn, policy director at the group Progressive Massachusetts, asking on the social network Bluesky, "How is this not a sick joke?"
Center for International Policy executive vice president Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) writing on X that "if you assembled a team of top scientists and told them to come up with a plan to ensure that the Democratic Party continues to lose working-class voters, I doubt they could do better than 'Make Rahm Emanuel head of the DNC.'"
Comedian, author, and podcaster Kate Willett
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The groups wrote on Thursday that big banks want to continue to "maintain their dominance by making it unduly difficult for consumers to switch institutions."
"The presence of these organizations on both the FDX and BPI boards undermines the credibility of FDX and presents various concerns relating to conflict of interest, interlocking directorate, and antitrust law," they wrote.
Upon introducing the finalized rule last month, Chopra said the action would "give people more power to get better rates and service on bank accounts, credit cards, and more" and help those who are "stuck in financial products with lousy rates and service."
The coalition of consumer advocacy groups—including Public Citizen, the American Economic Liberties Project, and Americans for Financial Reform—urged Chopra to reject FDX's application for standard-setting authority so long as the banks remain on its board.
“It would be a flagrant conflict of interest for the same banks who are suing to block the open banking rule because it threatens their market dominance to also be in charge of implementing it," said Demand Progress Education Fund corporate power director Emily Peterson-Cassin. "The American people are fed up with Wall Street controlling every aspect of their lives and the open banking rule is an opportunity to give all of us some financial freedom. The CFPB must stop this ploy by the biggest banks to keep us trapped under their thumbs."
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A government watchdog group said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump has effectively signaled that the incoming administration is open for business by choosing longtime Republican strategist Susie Wiles—a former lobbyist for the tobacco industry and other sordid interests—as his White House chief of staff.
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Among Wiles' clients, according to the watchdog group, were:
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White House chief of staff is a powerful position that does not require Senate approval. In the role, Wiles will control the flow of information and those who have access to the president as well as manage White House personnel.
Trump's selection of Wiles flies in the face of his previous pledge to "drain the swamp" and recent criticism of the disproportionate influence lobbyists wield in Washington, D.C.
"They're making a lot of money, absolutely," Trump acknowledged in an August appearance on the "This Past Weekend" podcast with comedian Theo Von. "One way you could stop it is to say if you're going to go into government, you can never be a lobbyist."
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