WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the largest membership organization of social workers in the United States, believes - and has always believed – that few things are as important as public safety and individual health and well-being.
However, unlike the Trump Administration, we believe that the foundations of public safety, and therefore the best way to safeguard and secure it, lie not with fear, intimidation, threats, and armed troops patrolling American cities, but with policies and programs that promote well-being and dignity such as safe and affordable housing, food and economic security, equal access to education and affordable health care, freedom from discrimination, a well-funded social safety net, and civil liberties that guarantee due process and equal protections under law.
We continue to be alarmed that the Trump administration has chosen to systematically and deliberately undermine all of those things. It has instead chosen the dangerous path of deploying National Guard troops to cities where no threat to public safety has been documented or confirmed, such as Washington, D.C.
“Social workers cannot and will not stand by while militarized vehicles roll through our streets and fear is used as a weapon against our communities,” NASW CEO Anthony Estreet, PhD, MBA, LCSW-C, said. “This isn’t safety, it’s suppression. True public safety is built on housing, health care, education, and justice, not soldiers patrolling neighborhoods.”
Rather than strengthening and supporting American families and communities, the Administration has:
- Vilified, victimized, and criminalized those experiencing mental health challenges and homelessness.
- Promoted and signed into law a bill that will leave almost 12 million individuals without health insurance and nearly four million people without food assistance.
- Stigmatized and demonized members of marginalized groups, including transgender individuals and immigrants who seek nothing more than to live freely and safely.
- Rounded up, jailed, and deported immigrants without any semblance or recognition of their humanity or access to due process.
- Cut access to learning opportunities and economic advancement by dismantling the Department of Education, slashing student loan programs, and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- Revoked funding for public health research and for mental health programs in the middle of a national mental health crisis.
- Is attempting to re-write American history in our museums and cultural institutions to reflect a deeply distorted image that is neither true nor worthy of the individuals, families, and communities who have contributed to our nation’s diversity, vitality, and growth.
As a result, as we watch an increasing number of troops arrive in the nation’s capital in an unprovoked show of force that threatens to be repeated in cities across the country, we stand at a tipping point. We can continue toward the abyss of authoritarianism with increasingly desperate and dangerous methods of social control that will progressively strip freedom for all of us.
Or we can step back, remind ourselves who we are, reach out to and support those who are in need, and re-take control of our democracy. We hope you will stand with us and join our efforts to ensure that this time, on our watch, our democracy doesn’t break for good.
“This administration’s authoritarian tactics are a direct threat to our democracy and to every freedom we hold dear,” Estreet said. “At NASW, we refuse to be silent. We will fight back with the full weight of our profession, mobilizing social workers across this nation to defend dignity, protect human rights, and reclaim democracy for the people.”
Want to delve more into this issue? Take time to read Federalization of D.C. police is an intrusive presidential overreachon NASW's Social Work Blog