Stop the Raids and Keep Families Together

Tell the White House and Congress that you OPPOSE President Trump’s raids that are tearing families and communities. Despite continued outcry from faith communities and immigrants’ rights groups, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has restarted workplace and home invasion raids. They are carrying out President Trump’s recent executive orders to build a wall across the U.S. southern border, detain families and children seeking asylum, and force local police to serve as federal immigration agents. The administration is implementing these orders by targeting all undocumented immigrants, including a Methodist lay leader in Kansas, a DREAMer in Seattle and a mother in Arizona. Hundreds of individuals have been detained and are being processed for deportation.

Raids are an inhumane and unjust response to our broken immigration system, and as people of faith we must stand in solidarity with our undocumented brothers and sisters.

President Trump’s raids on immigrant families and communities will not make anyone any safer. Walling off America, reducing community safety, and failing to protect those in need are affronts to our country’s values of family unity, fairness, and equality. Faith communities have demonstrated unwavering commitment to our immigrant neighbors, including more than 800 congregations that have pledged support for the Sanctuary Movement and 1,000 faith leaders who have opposed policies that foster trust between immigrants and police. We draw from the scriptural call to love thy neighbor and welcome the sojourner by standing with our brothers and sisters to stop harmful deportations that tear families apart.

Call the White House and Congress TODAY

President Trump: (866) 961-4293

Your Senators and Representatives: (202) 224-3121*

*Please call this line 3 times to be connected with your 1 Representative and 2 Senators.

 

Sample Script: “I’m a Catholic Sister and your constituent from [City, State]. I urge President Trump to immediately STOP the inhumane and unjust ICE raids deporting our immigrant neighbors. Raids don’t make our communities safer. I am also OPPOSED to President Trump’s executive orders to build a wall, prevent asylum seekers from seeking safety, and force local police to serve as federal immigration agents.

These executive orders are unjust, run counter to who we are as a nation, and do not reflect the welcome for immigrants I see every day in my own community. I urge you to do everything in your power to see these orders are reversed, and to stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors.” 

 

If you’d like to learn more about how you can offer support of various types, including sanctuary, please visit www.sanctuarynotdeportation.org. 

Stop Deporting Families Fleeing Violence #Not1More

From RAICES: Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services May 13, 2016

Dear Supporter:   Right now, in detention centers around the United States, there are mothers and children begging the Obama Administration officials for the right to ask for asylum. Instead of the Administration  respecting the rights of these families, they are forcing them to return to countries where they will be killed. Our client has been denied her 2nd bid for asylum despite the fact that her relative was murdered this past January, after he had also been deported from the United States. G.S. Family Denied 2nd Request for Asylum: Sign Petition to Free Them Our client, the G.S. family, mother and 12-year old daughter, fled from El Salvador after the mother had been repeatedly raped. This mother has brought her child to the United States and is seeking protection from the gangs that would post outside the young girl's school and threaten to take her as their property. Instead of our government giving this family a chance to ask for asylum, they are being told they need to sign deportation papers to be taken back to their deaths.  This needs to stop and YOU can help STOP it; sign and share this petition What is happening with the G.S. family is wrong. Worse yet this family is not alone in facing this uphill battle just to be able to share their story. As of late, this is a trend we are seeing where the Department of Homeland Security is refusing to allow victims of trauma to share their stories. The only way we can stop this is by winning release for families like the G.S. family.  Take Action: Call the Department of Homeland Security @ 202-732-3000 and leave a message of support for this case. Sample call-in script: "Hi, I was calling to ask that the family known as E.G.S. at the Karnes Family Detention Center be given a fair asylum interview. A victim of trauma should not be deported simply because she wasn't able to tell her story the first time. The G.S. family will be killed if deported, they should have a chance to tell their story. Thank you." After you call please let us know how the call went, we are trying to keep a tally of calls made. Thank you for your continued support. Sincerely, Jonathan Ryan Executive Director RaicesTexas.org  RAICES promotes justice by providing free and low-cost immigration legal services and education to under-served immigrant children, families and refugees. RAICES has been working in the community since 1987, with offices in San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas and Fort Worth.

Faith and Immigrants’ Rights Leaders Call for End to ICE Raids

Washington, D.C. – Just days before the Christmas holiday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced their plans to begin raids on Central American families, many of whom fled to the United States after facing extreme violence, persecution and poverty. Faith leaders from across the United States immediately responded in a statement on Christmas Day, offering sanctuary to those looking to fight their deportation orders and seek shelter from the raids. Shortly after the new year, ICE raids began in several states, netting 121 individuals and prompting immigrants’ rights groups to increase national know-your-rights campaigns.

Today, faith and immigrants’ rights leaders joined together to call on President Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to immediately put a halt to the raids. They reiterated the faith community’s offer of sanctuary and shared stories of communities and individuals impacted by the raids.

“Our country is at its best when we are most welcoming. Women and children fleeing unspeakable terror should find the tools they need to live with dignity in the United States,” said Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Instead of promoting safety, the Obama administration has punished those who have put their faith in a system that has instead been prioritizing expediting deportations. This goes against our values and heritage as a nation.”

“We people of faith have learned that the laws that govern immigration in the U.S. are not only unjust, but they discourage us from living out our faith imperative to love and help our neighbor with particular concern to those who suffer most,” said Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, United Methodist Bishop for the Los Angeles Area. “We stand together on this day to oppose ICE raids on Central American families, to offer sanctuary to these families, and to renew our commitment to working for immigration reform in this country.”

Adding to the faith community’s call for an end to the raids, Rev. Alison Harrington, Pastor at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona said, “The U.S. government is once again violating their own asylum laws and international human rights standards. Human lives are on the line and our faith traditions are very clear that our salvation is dependent on what we do in this moment. In this moment as people are running away from horrific violence, the gift that we as religious leaders and as congregations have to offer is the gift of sanctuary. The movement won’t stop until there is not one more family living in fear of deportation.”

 “The sanctuary movement offers a moral framework and prophetic voice to build inclusive and welcoming communities in the midst of harsh, unjust and immoral immigration enforcement actions that are terrorizing the community,” said the Rev. Noel Andersen, National Grassroots Coordinator at Church World Service. “We are now calling on the White House and DHS to stop the structural sins of raids and deportations. Instead, the administration should focus their resources on providing much needed legal assistance for these asylum seekers and humanitarian aid to address root causes of migration.”

http://cwsglobal.org/call-for-end-to-ice-raids/

TAKE ACTION:  

Contact the White House and Homeland Security and demand an end to the raids.  #Not1More 

1. Call the White House at 1-866-961-4293. You can also call the White House Comment Line directly at 1-888-907-2053.  Here's a sample script:

"I'm from City, State, Congregation/Community and as a person of faith, I urge President Obama to immediately STOP plans to deport Central American children and families.  These individuals are fleeing violence and should have access to legal counsel so that they can apply for asylum and protection in the United States."
 
    2.  If you can’t get through on the phone email is the next best thing. http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
 
    3.    If you “tweet”, send the President a message: @POTUS #STOPDeportations of Central American children and families. They are fleeing violence & have a right to seek asylum #Not1More