US: Trump Nominates Anti-Immigrant Mortensen a Top Position Overseeing Refugees

US President Donald Trump nominated Ronald Mortensen, known for his anti-immigration sentiments, to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. 

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Mortensen who is known to have voiced anti-immigrant sentiments needs to be confirmed by the Senate for the top State Department position which oversees refugees and those facing conflict at home. 

"Mortensen’s record directly undermines the bureau’s core mission. Senators should be alarmed by Mortensen’s fiercely xenophobic rhetoric and a long history of undermining the rights of refugees and immigrants," ACLU pointed out.  

Prominent immigration lawyer Greg Siskind also pointed out on Twitter that Trump's move suggests that he was "getting bolder" in pushing his anti-immigration agenda.  
Morsten founded the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration and serves as a senior fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), "which is notorious for peddling dubious research on the supposed harms caused by immigrants," the ACLU pointed out in its report. 

The CIS is known to have supported Trump’s attacks on refugees along with its racist agenda of prioritizing non-Muslim refugees. 

"Mortensen shares CIS’ hardline views and has authored several troubling pieces for the group espousing these positions. For example,

Mortensen believes it is "immoral" to grant any legal status to undocumented immigrants because they, in his words, "routinely commit multiple felonies” while residing in the U.S. Mortensen similarly criticized the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by vilifying Dreamers as criminals," ACLU pointed out. 

Trump's was behind repealing a law which allowed the children of undocumented immigrants who live in Utah to pay in-state tuition when attending public colleges and universities. And urged the state lawmakers to have a law similar to Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law, that authorizes police to demand papers proving citizenship or immigration status.