 "South-Asian body in US urges Trump to renounce hate-filled rhetoric")
An influential South-Asian group has urged US President-elect Donald Trump to immediately renounce the "steady narrative of hate and fear used during his campaign", saying he should partner with the community to protect its civil liberties.
"The President-elect must acknowledge the steady narrative of hate and fear used during his campaign has served as a rallying cry for violence and oppression against our communities," said Suman Raghunathan, executive director of South-Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).
"At this early and urgent hour, the President-elect must immediately reverse course and partner with South-Asian groups nationwide to protect our community's civil liberties to achieve immigration reform and to understand that the only way to Make America Great is by ensuring the fundamental freedoms of everyone under the law," Raghunathan said yesterday.
SAALT said the "upcoming new administration must also abandon the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that were hallmarks of the campaign".
Statements about "building a wall", using a "deportation force", and "extreme vetting" must be categorically renounced, it said, adding Trump must instead prioritise engaging members of Congress to create a roadmap to citizenship, preserve family-based immigration systems and put an end to the draconian immigration enforcement policies currently in place.
With 450,000 undocumented Indian-Americans alone, South- Asians have a tremendous stake in fixing the broken immigration system, the group said.
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"We call on the new administration to pass immigration legislation that will defend our rights and expand opportunity for immigrant families," it said.
The group said it has heard from many in the community, particularly Muslim and Sikh-Americans, who have expressed concerns for their safety in the wake of the elections.
"Unfortunately, these fears are not misplaced. SAALT has tracked a disturbing uptick in hate violence and xenophobic rhetoric against our communities in the last year with 200 instances occurring across the US since November 2015.
"Of the over 80 incidents of xenophobic rhetoric, we have tracked over 25% have been statements by the President-elect, including calling for a "complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the US," it said.
"We call on the President-elect to partner with SAALT and the National Coalition of South-Asian Organisations to prevent, detect and respond to bias-motivated incidents of violence and to denounce any hate directed at our communities," the group added.