Four Ways You Can Fight for Immigrants

For background on the family separation issue, please see our earlier articles here and here.

Updated July 3, 2018:

On June 26 federal District Judge Dana Sabraw granted a preliminary injunction in a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU, halting the family separation policy and ordering agencies to quickly begin reunifying families separated as a result of Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. As of this writing, the Administration still has no plan to reunite families, and there are troubling questions about where the children are – including the fact that children have been placed with religious foster care agencies linked to Betsy DeVos and her husband.

On July 2, a district court judge in Texas ruled against the administration’s blanket practice of indefinitely detaining asylum seekers instead of granting them parole and releasing them to sponsors in the U.S. who have indicated that they are willing to provide housing. The court, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, granted a preliminary injunction preventing the federal government from denying parole to “asylum seekers who traveled to the United States, were found to have a credible fear of persecution, and were referred for immigration proceedings to decide their asylum claims.”

Here are updated tips on what you can do to fight the administration’s war against immigrants: (1) show up and raise your voice; (2) tell our Members of Congress to take action; (3) donate and help organizations; and (4) know the facts & spread the word.

1. Show Up and Raise Your Voice!

Thanks to all of you who attended any of the June 30 protests put on across the country by a broad coalition of groups (including Indivisible). Don’t stop now: events are continuing!

• Actions at West County Detention Facility: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) houses adult immigration detainees in Richmond, at the West County Detention Facility (WCDF), 5555 Giant Highway, Richmond. The Interfaith Coalition for Human Rights holds a monthly vigil there, usually on the first Saturday of every month – check their calendar for exact date and time. And Kehilla Community Synagogue’s Immigration Committee holds a protest at WCDF the second Sunday of each month, from 11 AM to 12 PM.
• Other actions on the spot: demonstrations and other events are being planned at short notice all over the Bay Area Please check the IEB facebook page for updated events listings
• Join 90-year old Ethel Kennedy and many others in “Break Bread, Not Families,” a hunger strike organized in solidarity with and to benefit organizations doing critical work to protect and care for families at the border.

2. Tell Our Members of Congress to Take Action

Our Senators and East Bay Members of Congress (MoCs) have always opposed the administration’s immoral policy of separating immigrant families and jailing babies and children. They must remain vocal leaders as the administration tries to sweep this issue out of public view. This is a fast-changing story and we will update the following action list as often as we can; please check back frequently.

Find contact info for our Senators and Representatives below and here.

Insist on Information:

Does the administration think that if they don’t talk about their outrageous conduct, we’ll forget about it? HHS has stopped answering questions about how many children have been separated from their parents, as well as other information about the children. Tell our elected representatives that “I can’t hear you” is not acceptable and that we want information.

Legislative action:

The administration has no process to reunite children with their parents, even after they are deported. There are no Republican bills that fix the problems caused by the administration’s zero tolerance policy.

• Ask our Senators to introduce, support, insist on legislation that will at a minimum return the children to their families. Since some of these children were taken from families seeking asylum who were wrongly arrested before their cases could even be heard, any legislation should also take this into account and allow for family reunification in the United States.
• Ask our Senators to use every tool at their disposal, including Congress’ power of the purse. Ask them to block any appropriations bills that fund the forced separation of families, and to use all the authorization and appropriations powers in the Constitution to stop this immoral and inhumane separation of families and jailing children.
• We’re proud that our California MoCs have been active in opposing, and trying to stop and reverse, the Administration’s cruel policies. Please thank all of them, with especial thanks for those who have taken on leadership:
  • Senators Feinstein and Harris introduced legislation to stop family separation and prevent future increases to immigration detention.
  • Senator Feinstein has requested a Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on family separations and is working on plans to visit at least one detention facility in California during recess.
  • Senator Harris toured the Otay Mesa Immigration and Detention Facility in San Diego and has suggested scrapping ICE and starting from scratch.
  • If you live in Rep. DeSaulnier’s district, please thank him for his vehement and apparently successful opposition to turning the Concord Naval Weapons Station into a detention facility.
  • If you’re a constituent of Rep. Lee, please thank her for visiting with detained parents and children in McAllen and Brownsville, Texas and speaking out strongly afterward. She has also written to the UN requesting observers.
  • If you’re a constituent of Rep. Swalwell, you can thank him for being a signatory to a letter to DHS Secretary Nielsen strongly protesting the Administration’s actions and demanding answers to a number of questions including plans for reuniting families and whether separating families “violates international human rights law,” as well as a letter to the Inspector General concerning record-keeping and family reunification. Rep. Swalwell will be making multiple appearances at June 30 Keep Families Together events.
  • All three East Bay Representatives signed a letter seeking more information about the Navy’s proposal to create a tent camp for undocumented immigrants at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station, and all three are co-sponsors of the Keep Families Together Act.
• The Constitution-Wrecker-in-Chief has asserted that undocumented immigrants should be deported with “no judges or court cases,” despite the fact that the Constitution extends due process rights to all persons, not just all citizens. Tell our MoCs to fight any effort by the Administration to take away any due process rights from undocumented immigrants.

Witness and report: 

So far, we have the statements of the administration (and their Biblical interpretations) about the incarceration of children separated from their parents; and we already know they’re lying through their teeth about this policy. And the agencies running the ‘detention centers’ will only provide their own video and photos of the inside of the facilities where the children are imprisoned.

• We want our MoCs to make the journey to see first-hand, to demand access, to investigate and report. HHS has issued a directive prohibiting visits with less than two weeks’ notice (except scheduled tours with RSVPs), and banned legislators from talking to the children in detention; we want them to fight back against this outrageous and transparent cover-up attempt. We want them to insist on being admitted into the facilities, on being permitted to talk to the children, and on making full reports of what they see and hear. Our MoCs have been strong on this issue; please thank them.
• We also want our MoCs to call for oversight and to demand documents from all relevant agencies about all aspects of all decisions that have been made concerning these children. This should include what experts were consulted as to the children’s physical and emotional welfare as a result of removing them from their parents and housing them in their current conditions. The administration should be required to prove to the satisfaction of appropriate, disinterested medical authorities that these children, housed in tents in the brutal Texas summer, are physically safe. It’s already clear, however, that they aren’t emotionally safe; experts such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have stated forceful opposition to the policy of family separation, which they say “can cause irreparable harm.”

What to say [this is a suggested script, you can adapt to include more of the the above information]:

My name is ___, my zip code is ___, and I’m a member of Indivisible East Bay. I want ____ to visit and inspect the detention facilities, and to call for oversight and demand documents from all relevant agencies about all aspects of all decisions that have been made concerning migrant families. I also want ____ to block any appropriations bills that fund the forced separation of families, and to use the authorization and appropriations powers in the Constitution to stop these immoral anti-immigrant practices.

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (email); (415) 393-0707 • DC: (202) 224-3841; 1 Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco CA 94104
• Sen. Kamala Harris (email); (415) 981-9369 • DC: (202) 224-3553; 333 Bush Street, Suite 3225, San Francisco CA 94104
• Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) (email): (510) 620-1000 DC: (202) 225-2095; 440 Civic Center Plaza, 2nd Floor, Richmond, CA 94804
• Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13) (email): (510) 763-0370 DC: (202) 225-2661; 1301 Clay Street #1000N, Oakland CA 94612
• Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15) (email): (510) 370-3322 DC: (202) 225-5065; 3615 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley CA 94546

3. Donate and help organizations

Ready to do more? These organizations are doing good and need your help:

• Kids at The Border ActBlue Fund – your donation helps several organizations working to protect kids separated from their families. The list is being updated, at this time it includes: Human Rights First, We Belong Together, Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, Women’s Refugee Commission, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), United We Dream Action, La Union Del Pueblo Entero, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Al Otro Lado, The Florence Project, Neta, Innovation Law Lab, Fuerza Del Valle, and The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
• This page listing many more worthy organizations is also being updated regularly
• The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) – This Texas-based organization gives direct legal support to immigrants. Your donation will help pay bonds so that parents can be released from ICE custody and reunite with their children
• Are you a lawyer, or do you know any who might want to help? Sign up here for more info about volunteer opportunities with Lawyers for Good Government, L4GG Foundation, and the Immigration Justice Campaign. They offer a wide range of in-person and remote options to provide assistance to immigrants, from research to representation.

4. Know the facts & spread the word:

• See this excellent article, including an extensive Q&A section by Suit Up Maine.
• Refute the administration’s lies that this is all the Democrats’ fault or that separating families was just enforcing the law. If their claims sound wrong – they probably are. Use fact-check sites such as Politifact and Snopes, and share only info you can verify.