An Open Letter to Michael Masters, CEO of Secure Community Network, from American Rabbis and Cantors, on His Calling for the Deportation of Immigrants
Dear Mr. Masters,
As rabbis and cantors who have long appreciated and benefited from Secure Community Network’s efforts to protect Jewish institutions, we were deeply dismayed to read your open letter to President Trump calling for the deportation of immigrants who “provide material support to designated terrorist organizations like ISIS and Hamas or threaten to harm Americans.” In it, you advocate for deporting “any non-citizen alien who supports terrorism.” You then define “support for terrorism” extremely broadly, citing the presence on “American streets and campuses” of people who promote “the slogans, flags, and messages of designated foreign terrorist organizations" and urge Trump to “take immediate action and begin the removal of those known to support these organizations.”
Like you, we have been alarmed at the rise in antisemitism over the past few years, including direct violence and threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions. Existing U.S. criminal law is well-equipped to respond to the perpetrators of such acts. Neither subverting the rule of law nor amplifying lies that smear immigrants as disproportionately involved in criminal activities makes the Jewish community safer.
It is well-documented that the primary perpetrators of domestic terrorism in the United States, and particularly against Jews, are white American citizens. We do not deny that in select circumstances, immigrants have carried out and attempted terrorist attacks. But to frontload them as the primary threat to Jewish security is not only morally irresponsible, but dangerous for the Jewish people and for American society. Furthermore, in all the examples you offer, the perpetrators or would-be perpetrators of horrific acts were arrested by law enforcement and charged in courts of law.
President Trump made lying and fear mongering about immigrants a core part of his campaign, and has already made targeting immigrants a core goal of his administration, as evident in the flurry of Executive Orders issued on Inauguration Day. It is a common strategy of would-be authoritarians to use scapegoating to excite support and justify violating due process and civil rights. Twentieth century Jewish immigrants, too, were smeared as dangerous to Americans and American society. People of conscience, and particularly Jews who care about our long-term security in a free and open society, should publicly resist that kind of incitement, not pander to it.
We need you to continue doing your crucial work to help keep Jewish communities safe. Perpetuating fear of immigrants and promoting the corrosion of the rule of law undermines this mission.
For these reasons, we ask you to reconsider your positioning and publicly retract your letter. Your credibility as an apolitical organization devoted to Jewish safety depends on it.
Sincerely,
