There’s no time to lose. Force Congress to protect DREAMers now!

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Dear Friend,

Despite a tem­po­rary gov­ern­ment shut down, Con­gress still has­n’t passed leg­is­la­tion to pro­tect 800,000 DREAM­ers who are at risk of depor­ta­tion from the only coun­try they’ve ever known. The next vote on their futures is this Thursday, February 8.

The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has cyn­i­cal­ly tied any ‘deal’ to pro­tect DREAM­ers direct­ly with mil­i­ta­riz­ing our south­ern bor­der, end­ing the diver­si­ty visa lot­tery, and mak­ing mas­sive cuts to fam­i­ly-based immi­gra­tion. This ‘deal’ is a non-starter.

Rather than pass­ing already-intro­duced, bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion called the DREAM Act [S. 1615/H.R. 3440], which would pro­tect immi­grant youth without tear­ing apart fam­i­lies and build­ing a bor­der wall, Con­gress keeps intro­duc­ing new leg­is­la­tion that insists upon includ­ing harm in its approach and impact. The lat­est, the USA Act, pro­vides a path­way to cit­i­zen­ship for mil­lions of peo­ple who came to the U.S. before age 18. Yet it also includes harm­ful pro­vi­sions to increase depor­ta­tions and fur­ther mil­i­ta­rize our bor­ders.

Now is the time to pass the DREAM Act once and for all.

Thou­sands of DREAM­ers, includ­ing SAALT allies Chi­rayu Patel and Ruchir, have trav­eled to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. since Pres­i­dent Trump heart­less­ly ter­mi­nat­ed DACA in Sep­tem­ber 2017 with­out leg­is­la­tion to undo the harm caused by end­ing this cru­cial pro­gram. Since last fall, DREAM­ers have coura­geous­ly shared their sto­ries and have declared they DO NOT sup­port any ‘deal’ that uses them as polit­i­cal bar­gain­ing chips while putting oth­er immi­grants in har­m’s way. Despite mis­guid­ed efforts to pit immi­grants against each oth­er, an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans sup­port leg­is­la­tion that pro­tects DREAM­ers with a path to cit­i­zen­ship that does not increase bor­der enforce­ment.
Con­tin­u­ing to shirk its respon­si­bil­i­ty to reflect the public’s needs and pri­or­i­ties, Con­gress keeps kick­ing the can down the road as hun­dreds of thou­sands of immi­grants’ lives con­tin­ue to hang in the bal­ance, includ­ing over 23,000 Indi­an and Pak­istani DREAM­ers. Since Sep­tem­ber, over 120 DREAM­ers lose their sta­tus every day, fac­ing the threat of depor­ta­tion.

Con­gress must do its job and pro­tect DREAM­ers on February 8!

Your voice matters! Here’s what you can do today to force Con­gress to pro­tect DREAM­ers:

  1. Dial 1–888-778‑6856 and wait for the “Wel­come” mes­sage
  2. Enter your zip code
  3. Con­nect to your Mem­ber of Con­gress and force them to pro­tect DREAM­ers now by pass­ing S. 1615/H.R. 3440!

See below for a sample script!

Hi, my name is ____________ and I live in ___________ (city in dis­trict). I’m call­ing to urge Representative/Senator ____________ to sup­port leg­is­la­tion on Feb­ru­ary 8 that pro­tects DREAM­ers with­out pro­vi­sions to increase depor­ta­tions or mil­i­ta­rize our bor­ders. DREAM­ers are not bar­gain­ing chips. Over 120 DREAM­ers lose their DACA sta­tus every day and thou­sands of fam­i­lies will be at risk of being torn apart unless Con­gress does its job on Feb­ru­ary 8 to pro­tect DREAM­ers with­out harm­ing immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties in the process. The best leg­isla­tive solu­tion is the exist­ing DREAM Act and I urge you sup­port that bill. Thank you for your time.  

Also, today, Feb­ru­ary 7, join hun­dreds of pro­gres­sive allies in Wash­ing­ton D.C. for the Nation­al Day of Action to demand a DREAM Act.

DAY OF ACTION DETAILS

What: Nation­al Day of Action for the Dream Act
When: Wednes­day, Feb. 7th start­ing at 12:00pm EST
Where: Start­ing at Trump Inter­na­tion­al Hotel, 1100 Penn­syl­va­nia Ave NW, Wash­ing­ton, DC 20004, and march­ing to the halls of Con­gress.
Who: Immi­grant youth, Unit­ed We Dream, Cen­ter for Pop­u­lar Democ­ra­cy, SEIU, The Women’s March, FIRM/Center for Com­mu­ni­ty Change, Good Jobs Nation, Nation­al Domes­tic Work­ers Alliance, Church World Ser­vice and more!

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/877004879138672/

It’s time for our lead­ers to put pol­i­tics aside and do their jobs and the will of the peo­ple. Con­gress must pro­tect immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties. Make your voice heard. There’s no time to lose.

In part­ner­ship,
The SAALT Team

 

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South Asian Amer­i­cans Lead­ing Togeth­er (SAALT) is a nation­al, non­par­ti­san, non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that fights for racial jus­tice and advo­cates for the civ­il rights of all South Asians in the Unit­ed States. Our ulti­mate vision is dig­ni­ty and full inclu­sion for all.

CONTACT: Vivek Trive­di – vivek@saalt.org