Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, tonight released the following statement in response to President Trump’s State of the Union address:

“This is the real state of the union: Under the Trump administration, the federal government has enacted the cruelest policies in modern American history. Nearly 60,000 people seeking refuge in our country have been forcibly sent to dangerous border cities in northern Mexico. Over 200 abortion opponents in Congress, emboldened by this administration, have asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade entirely. And, President Trump has renewed calls for voter ID laws—policies that already disenfranchise tens of thousands of people in 36 states.

“If the state of the union is strong, it is despite Donald Trump. The strength of our nation comes from the people: the refugees and immigrants whose stories are an inextricable part of our nation’s history, the advocates resisting rollbacks on abortion rights, and the people in every corner of the country who fight back against his hateful policies. The ACLU will continue to dare to create a more perfect union, and to hold this president to account—in the courts, at the ballot box, and in state legislatures.”