Tell Congress: Defend Immigrant Rights

With the end of the bipartisan "Title 42" policy and the restoration of the basic right to seek asylum at our southern border, detention and state violence will likely be on the rise.   

However, systemic violence against immigrants is not new. Decades of conflict driven foreign policy has displaced millions of people seeking refuge from war, climate crisis and poverty. At the same time, domestic policies have excluded immigrants from basic protections and rights within our borders.   

Although Republican politicians are more extreme in their anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, both political parties have played a role in wrongfully targeting and scapegoating immigrant communities.   

More than 2,000 children have been separated from their families since 2007 and over 1,000 migrants die at the border every year while the U.S. government spends more on federal immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.

States like Texas and Florida are transporting migrants to other states as political theater, and leaders in these states are calling for increased militarization of our communities. Extremists paint immigrants as drains on the economy - the truth is they contribute trillions of dollars to the economy and hundreds of millions in taxes, yet are barred from most social welfare programs. During the pandemic, immigrants were 40% less likely to receive Child Tax Credit payments, even when they qualified for them. This is also despite the fact that they were often on the frontlines in essential jobs with the worst working conditions.  

This is wrong and goes against our deepest moral and religious beliefs. The Bible tells us that how we treat the immigrant is how we honor God. We are calling on Congress to take action on the immigration crisis by:  

* raising the minimum wage and ensuring work protections, regardless of where we are born 
* providing immigrants access to critical social welfare programs and health care, without work requirements 
* passing comprehensive immigration reform that ends family separation and child detention and prioritizes family well being