28 Immigrant Rights Organizations Urge Senators to Reject Judicial Nominee Steven Menashi

His Xenophobic Tendencies, Culminating in his Participation in Stephen Miller’s Immigration Working Group, Are Disqualifying

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rafael Medina, [email protected], 202.869.0390

WASHINGTON – As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to consider the troubling judicial nomination of anti-immigrant hardliner Steven Menashi to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 28 immigrant rights groups are joining their voices to urge the committee to stop his confirmation. Throughout his career, Menashi, a Republican loyalist, has worked to erode critical rights and legal protections of immigrant communities and people of color. While serving in the White House Counsel’s Office and at the Education Department, he exhibited alarming tendencies that, if still present while serving on the bench, would deny countless individuals a fair day in court during the remainder of his career.

“Mr. Menashi’s disturbing and long track record demonstrates a willingness to put ideology ahead of the law. Mr. Menashi’s deeply held beliefs have infused his work as Secretary Betsy DeVos’ enabler and at the White House,” the letter says.

The groups “do not believe any immigrant who appears before him in a courtroom can expect a fair day in court,” and urge the committee to oppose his nomination.

Click here to read the letter.

In addition to The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the organizations calling the Senate to reject Menashi include: 32BJ SEIU,  ACLU People Power Fairfax, African Communities Together, America’s Voice, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Center for American Progress, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Coalition on Human Needs, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Immigrant Defense Project, Irish International Immigrant Center, Muslim Advocates, NAACP, National Action Network, National Association of Social Workers, National Council of Jewish Women, National Immigration Law Center, National Organization for Women, Poder Latinx, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Southern Poverty Law Center, United We Dream, Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.