Ron speaks out in Portland against Trump threat to legal immigrants

Ron volunteered last week at the Oregon Food Bank bagging apples for hungry families after speaking beforehand at the Portland non-profit about Donald Trump’s latest threat to legal immigrants who use public benefits.

“Now is the time to mobilize to derail an awful policy before it happens,” Ron said at a news conference at the Oregon Food Bank with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, Latino Network and CAUSA. “The bottom line is this proposed rule change would create a poorer, sicker, hungrier nation. And we simply must reject it.”

If Trump’s proposal comes to pass, it would reverse long-standing policy that’s correctly stopped the federal government from hurting the immigration status of legal immigrant families who use public health and nutrition programs.

Trump should not be scaring families away from applying for public food benefits thereby increasing the already-heavy burden on non-profits like the Oregon Food Bank to provide badly needed meals for children and families.

Ron said this threatened Trump attack takes on even greater cruelty, given its potential timing heading into Hunger Action Month -- as well as at the start of the school year.

“This threat by the Trump administration would create a real climate of fear for legal immigrant families,” he said. “This horrible idea must be stopped now.”