Just days after his visit to the Tree of Life Synagogue where congregants were attacked by a white supremacist steeped in online vitriol against Jews and immigrants, President Trump has escalated his dehumanizing words about migrants south of the border. Casting a currently imprisoned convicted murderer as the face of immigrants seeking asylum instead of showing the far more typical migrant profile–a child between the ages of 1 and 5 fleeing violence, Trump is stoking fears of the racial and religious other as a way of garnering political power. This unscrupulous speech is the lifeblood of despotic regimes we say we hate and the fuel for violent extremism of the sort we saw in Pittsburgh this week.
The Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director
The Interfaith Center of New York
