Take Action to #DefundHate

As the administration increases its attacks on immigrants, refugees, and people of color, it's more important than ever to stand with our neighbors. For example, DHS just terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaragua and forced an insufficient extension of only six months for Honduras. As the administration wrongfully terminates TPS designations - a humanitarian tool used to protect people from being returned to harm - we must cut funding that would be used to deport and detain our immigrant neighbors, including TPS holders. Congress must hear our voices loud and clear: Defund the deportation machine that will tear families and communities apart. Congress has the “power of the purse” and can reject this proposal and defund the deportation, detention, and militarization machine.

Here are five more ways to take action:

1. Call Congress at (202) 224-3121: Please call 3 times to connect with your 2 Senators & 1 Representative. Here's an example of what to say: 

"I'm your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and [as a person of faith] I urge you to cut  funding for detention, deportation, and border militarization. I don’t want Congress to write Trump a check to deport and detain my community members. This funding fuels agencies like ICE and CBP which have a long track record of lying, hiding information, and retaliating against those who speak out against them. We need to use public funds for needed resources like healthcare, education, and housing, instead of this hateful detention and deportation machine. We ask [Senator/Representative] to publicly call for significant cuts to ICE and CBP and be a voice to #DefundHate."

2. Tweet at your Members of Congress: Click here for the #DefundHate social media toolkit that includes sample messages, graphics, and twitter handles.

3. Join the TPS Prayer Chain and Share on Social Media: Record a video of yourself holding a printed, filled out #Faith4TPS sign. Upload your video to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with the hashtag #Faith4TPS and tag the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (@interfaithimm). Don't forget to tweet at your Members of Congress and @realDonaldTrump. Click here for sample social media posts and here for graphics.

4. Write & Share Press Releases Condemning TPS Terminations: Press releases increase public education and raise the public profile of why TPS is important to our communities. We encourage faith organizations to take a public stance condemning Nicaragua's TPS termination, denouncing the cruelty in only a 6-month extension for Honduras, urging the administration to extend TPS designations for all TPS countries for at least 18 months, and calling on Congress to pass a permanent solution for TPS holders. CWS's statement is available here.

5. Plan #Faith4TPS Events: Host an interfaith vigil, educate your faith community, and organize other events to lift up the importance of TPS. Local actions are a great way to amplify voices of TPS holders in the media, and don’t forget to invite your national, state, and local officials. Click here to view our Interfaith Toolkit to Defend TPS to learn more.

Action alert from Church World Service 

Stand Against the Border Wall, Deportations, and Detention Centers

President Trump has signed a series of executive orders that discriminate against our immigrant, refugee, and Muslim neighbors. These orders further a hateful, xenophobic agenda that does not represent the welcoming communities across the United States. Walling off America, reducing community safety, and turning our back on those in need are affronts to our country’s values of family unity, fairness, and equality. As people of faith, we are called to stand against these discriminatory policies.

The Trump administration is moving forward with its plans to build a border wall, increase detention of asylum seekers, and expand a mass deportation force targeting our undocumented community members. Congress has the power to stop Trump's plans in their tracks by opposing any funding that would implement these executive orders.

URGENT CALLS NEEDED: Tell Your Members of Congress to OPPOSE Funding for Trump's Deportation Machine, Border Wall, and Detention Centers

Trump is asking Congress for an additional $7.5 billion in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, over and above last year’s funding for immigration enforcement, at the expense of vital education, housing, and nutritional assistance programs that promote public safety and alleviate poverty. Congress has an opportunity to protect our tax dollars and ensure billions of dollars don't go toward expanding immigration enforcement, separating families, or detaining children. Now is our chance to tell our Members of Congress to live up to our values and act with moral authority.

Call Your Senators and Representatives: (866) 961-4293*

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

Sample Script: “I’m your constituent from [City, State, Zip Code], and I urge you to NOT fund President Trump’s wall, deportation force and detention centers, and instead do everything in your power to rescind his immigration and refugee executive orders. Our tax dollars should be spent alleviating poverty and investing in our future — not rounding up our community members. My community welcomes refugees and immigrants.”

Please also share a personal story about why welcoming immigrants and refugees is important to you, your community, etc. Let them know the specific ways that immigrants and refugees contribute and are welcomed in your community.

You can also tweet @ your Senators/Representatives with these messages:

• .@HANDLE, show that #AmericaWelcomes. Refuse to fund Trump’s wall, deportation force & detention centers #NoBanNoWallNoRaids
• .@HANDLE, stop Trump from targeting refugees and immigrants. Don’t fund his deportation force. #NoBanNoWallNoRaids
• .@HANDLE, Don’t fund Trump’s morally reprehensible EOs. Stand against them & refuse to fund them. #NoBanNoWallNoRaids
• .@HANDLE, $6.6 billion on immigration enforcement, or 121K new elementary school teachers or nearly 100K new middle-class jobs

Here are some additional actions you can take:

(1) Sign the Petition! Sign on to tell Congress to stop Trump from building a wall and increasing detention & deportations.

(2) Rapid Response Toolkit: Use this toolkit to join together with refugee resettlement agencies, refugee leaders, faith leaders, and community members to host a mobilization at your local airport or other locations, and bear witness in opposition to the refugee and Muslim ban. Visit CounterAct.blog and getgroundgame.com/airportprotests.html to see events happening near you. We want to highlight all events on a map so that community members will be able to get your event details and join you in action. Click to add your events: http://bit.ly/RWEventReg.

(3) Tell President Trump to Support Refugees: Tweet @realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse & send the same message to whitehouse.gov/contact and Facebook.com/WhiteHouse.

• .@realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse Don't stop welcoming refugees. Resettlement demonstrates the best of our values #RefugeesWelcome #GreaterAs1
• .@realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse Keep America welcoming. Refugee resettlement is a proud American legacy with bipartisan support #RefugeesWelcome #GreaterAs1
• Countering 'alternative facts' with real ones. FACT: #Refugees are the most vetted people to enter the US. #RefugeesWelcome #GreaterAs1
• .@RealDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse: Today’s EO is the same unconstitutional EO we saw last month & we are still against it. #GreaterAs1 #RefugeesWelcome
• .@realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse Denying Muslim refugees safety is an affront to religious liberty #RefugeesWelcome interfaithimmigration.org/5000religiousleaderletter/
• .@realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse More than 5,000 faith leaders are opposed to any policy that would keep Muslim refugees from seeking safety: interfaithimmigration.org/5000religiousleaderletter/

(4) Reach out to your partners in the business, health, educator, law enforcement, and faith community! Urge them to sign onto these sector-specific letters supporting resettlement and opposing discrimination: 

• bit.ly/Business4Refugees
• bit.ly/Educators4Refugees
• bit.ly/LawEnforcement4Refugees
• bit.ly/Health4Refugees
• bit.ly/FaithLeaders4Refugees

Trump's executive orders are morally reprehensible, and as Americans and as people of faith, we must stand together and mobilize against these discriminatory policies. Please spread the word and have everyone you know share this take action!

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.