Posts Tagged ‘immigrant justice’

Immigrant Workers Need Our Love

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Immigrant Workers Need Our Love Share/Save/Bookmark May 14, 2013

The Senate Judiciary Committee will be considering amendments again today to the bipartisan immigration reform bill. They began the amendment process last week, and will continue through the week of May 20. The amendment process is vitally important to comprehensive immigration reform. While some of these amendments provide important anti-discrimination and labor protections for immigration workers, others would effectively eliminate the ability of any guest workers to immigrate legally to the United States.

We must raise our voices and tell the members of the Judiciary Committee that our country needs compassionate immigration reform. Senators in the Judiciary Committee need to hear from people of faith across the country about the impact these amendments will have on our communities.

Please call 1-866-940-2439 to speak with the office of a Judiciary Committee member this morning and say:

“As a person of faith, I urge the Senator to SUPPORT all immigration amendments being offered by Senator Blumenthal, and Schumer #5, which would protect immigrant workers.

I also urge you to OPPOSE amendments that would hurt immigrant workers, specifically Sessions #3, Lee #19, Hatch #19 and #20, and Grassley #73 and #74.”

If you get an answering machine, please leave a message. Staff will be reporting all day on the number of calls for and against each amendment to the Senators. Find more information on the specific amendments below.

We believe that love has no borders, love keeps families together, and love respects the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Together, we can ensure that this immigration reform bill reflects our values.

Please call 1-866-940-2439 today!

In faith,

Jennifer Toth
Campaign Manager
Standing on the Side of Love

SUPPORT

Senator Blumenthal’s Amendments #7, #13, #17, and #18
These amendments would ban hiring discrimination based on national origin or citizenship status, provide whistleblower protections for temporary workers, ensure workers have the right to a pay stub so that they can prove employment status for the pathway to citizenship, and codify current ICE policy restricting immigration enforcement actions where labor violations have been cited, so a threat of raids won’t keep workers from reporting abuse.

Senator Schumer’s Amendment #5
This amendment would help workers change employers without the risk of losing their visa, and would provide an electronic monitoring system for the program.

OPPOSE

Senator Sessions’ Amendment #3
This amendment would prevent any guest workers from entering the U.S. if the unemployment rate is 5 percent or more. This is such a low threshold that it could effectively keep all guest workers from immigrating to the U.S.

Senator Lee’s Amendment #19 and Senator Hatch’s Amendments #19 and #20
These amendments would exempt employers of temporary workers from complying with labor and employment laws, thus allowing them to violate the rights of temporary workers; and would limit the ability of individuals and groups from submitting a complaint about worker’s mistreatment on behalf of a mistreated temporary worker.

Senator Grassley’s Amendments #73 & #74
These amendments would restrict temporary workers (new “W” visa recipients) from renewing their visas, and would require all temporary workers to provide proof that they can and are paying for their own health insurance, which could effectively prevent almost all temporary workers from entering the U.S.

*Please note that you likely will not be connected with your own Senator’s office through this number, unless they are a specific Judiciary Committee member. This is the best way to raise our voices at this moment. Judiciary members know they are responsible to ALL of us as they consider amendments. Feel free to call 1-866-940-2439 multiple times to connect with all priority Judiciary members. The Judiciary Committee list can be found here, if you want to call directly.

The message above went out on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Investors Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

4 Comments | Share On Facebook| Investors Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform Share/Save/Bookmark Apr 30, 2013
UUA Treasurer and CFO Tim Brennan

This post was written by UUA Treasurer and CFO Tim Brennan.

Responding to the introduction of immigration reform legislation in the U.S. Senate, a broad and diverse group of more than 70 institutional investors including the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) joined together to call on Congress to take immediate action and pass commonsense immigration reform. The coalition represents $890.5 billion in assets under management on behalf of major pension funds, nonprofit organizations, faith-based investors, and socially responsible investors.

In a public letter, the group stated, “We believe comprehensive reform must be developed and implemented consistent with the human rights of all concerned, must value the integrity of families and must prevent immigrant workers—be they temporary or permanent—from being subjected to second-class employment standards.”

Regardless of our faith, I believe we all share a moral responsibility to stop the suffering caused by the current immigration policy, especially to families. As members of the investment community, we know the path to economic prosperity lies ultimately with the humane treatment of our workers.

The letter outlines the economic rationale, citing a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office which concluded that immigration reform could add as much as 1.3 percent to GDP by 2016. The coalition also notes that reform is imperative to ensuring a competitive U.S. labor force and a more prosperous economy for all Americans.

My colleague Susan Smith Makos, vice president of social responsibility for Mercy Investment Services, says of the letter, “As investors, we have a responsibility to advocate for those without a voice. Comprehensive immigration reform is a necessary step to improve conditions for those immigrants living and working in our country. Our hope is that leaders in U.S. Congress will realize the significant, positive impact that immigration reform can have not only on businesses but also on our country.”

Organizing investors to speak out for comprehensive immigration reform is a part of the UUA’s efforts to express our values through the management of our investments. As an active shareholder, the UUA uses its ownership rights to file resolutions on a range of issues including LGBTQ nondiscrimination, political spending, human rights, and sustainability. But to be effective, we must act in concert with other investors. Therefore the UUA is an active member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Ceres, SIF: the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, and the Investor Network on Climate Risk.

Together with these investors, we recognize that consideration of justice is as important to investing as risk and return.

This post was written by Unitarian Universalist Association Treasurer and CFO Tim Brennan. Tim is an active proponent of shareholder advocacy and socially responsible investing.

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One Click Away from Compassionate, Family-Based Immigration Reform

No Comments | Share On Facebook| One Click Away from Compassionate, Family-Based Immigration Reform Share/Save/Bookmark Apr 17, 2013

I have been hearing so many amazing stories of Unitarian Universalists making advocacy visits to tell their elected officials that immigration reform must respect the inherent worth and dignity of all people.

In 2010, I marched and later was arrested in Phoenix, AZ, because my faith values taught me that it is wrong to tear apart families and criminalize whole communities. No person is illegal. I stood on the side of love to stop immoral legislation that sadly began spreading from one state to another.

Now finally the moment is here, a once in a generation moment, to pass federal legislation that will create one immigration policy for our nation.

An immigration reform bill was introduced this morning, so now is the time to tell Congress that reform must be compassionate.

You can do that right now, by simply sending this message to your local elected official. Tell them that reform must keep families together.

One of the proudest moments of my presidency was when thousands of Unitarian Universalists witnessed at the Tent City detention center in Phoenix at Justice General Assembly last year calling for an end to detentions and deportations and for reform of our immigration laws.

You and I both know how powerful our voices can be when we mobilize and work together to make real change happen. Click here to add your voice today towards compassionate, family-based immigration reform.

Love has no borders, love keeps families together, love respects the inherent worth and dignity of all people.

In faith,

Rev. Peter Morales
President
Unitarian Universalist Association

The message above went out on Wednesday, April 16, 2013 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Not One More!

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Not One More! Share/Save/Bookmark Apr 10, 2013

As the debate over immigration reform continues in Washington, so too do the deportations that rip families apart. In response, our partners at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) have launched #Not1More, a collaborative project to expose, confront, and overcome unjust immigration enforcement policies through organizing, art, legislation, and action.

Click here to watch the video and learn how you can take action to ensure that there is #Not1More deportation.

This is a monumental time in the movement for immigrant justice. Over the past two weeks, UUs went on 60+ advocacy visits to tell their elected officials that immigration reform must respect the inherent worth and dignity of all people. Today, thousands of folks will gather together in Washington, DC and at echo events across the country to raise their voices for compassionate immigration reform, and there will be a sea of Yellow Shirts there. An immigration reform bill is likely to be introduced any day now, and it is imperative that legislators continue to hear from you to ensure that reform is compassionate.

In recent years, deportations, incarceration, and criminalization of immigrant communities have escalated at an unprecedented rate. But at the same time, record numbers of people are refusing to be victims and instead are taking a stand for themselves, for their families, for our communities, and for all of us.

#Not1More weaves together all of our voices in a central location so that local efforts to stop deportation and build community are strengthened and accompanied by cultural creations that illustrate the ugliness of criminalization and the beauty of our communities.

Together we say: not one more family destroyed, not one more day without equality, not one more indifferent reaction to suffering, not one more deportation.

Click here to add your voice and say #Not1More. 

In faith,

Jennifer Toth
Campaign Manager
Standing on the Side of Love

PS: Learn more about what you can do to advocate for compassionate immigration reform here: http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/cir.

The message above went out on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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Marching Next Week for Compassionate Immigration Reform

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Marching Next Week for Compassionate Immigration Reform Share/Save/Bookmark Apr 02, 2013

I work for immigrant rights because there need to be people who are willing to use the political, financial, and social power that they have in this country to support those who face discrimination. This is not charity work, it is solidarity work. We must be there to say that the demands for just and humane treatment, for compassionate inclusion and loving acceptance, must be heard and honored. I stand with immigrants so that they remain empowered to assert their right to be granted equality and opportunity.

That is why I will be marching for compassionate immigration reform next week in Philadelphia. This rally is one of the ‘echo events’ being held all around the country in concert with the huge rally for immigration reform in Washington, DC on April 10th. Our partners in the immigrant community have asked for the “Love People” to join them—we must heed their call!

Will you join us? Click here to join the Love People in DC or click here to find an echo event wherever you are!

If there isn’t an event in your area, you can still make your voice heard! Click here to ask your members of Congress to support compassionate immigration reform.

As a seminarian, my faith calls me to be with those who are denied the recognition of their full humanity. My evolving call to ministry is one of affirmation, one that moves me to recognize the value of every being and to advocate for the rights that all people deserve regardless of class, creed, gender, ethnicity, or citizenship. For me, to stand on the side of love is to stand on the side of just immigration reform. To stand on the side of love is to celebrate the fact that we are one human family, that we are all miracles created out of and built for love. To stand on the side of love is to stand on the side of change when any members of our human family are mistreated or abused. It is to stand with those who have been otherized and oppressed, to move outside of our comfort zone and into the beautiful messiness of justice-making. When I stand alongside individuals whose lives depend on immigration reform, I stand for the justice and love that I know we as a society are capable of enacting.

I urge people to listen to stories. As you hear the stories of the DREAMers, of the families being split apart, as you meet more immigrants fighting for their human rights, you get to know them not as immigrants but as people. You realize that we are all working towards similar goals. We all want to lead happy and fulfilling lives, we all want to feel at home, to make sure our loved ones are safe and healthy. We all want to thrive.

Help us create this community where all can thrive. Find an echo event near you and write to your members of Congress today!

Love keeps families together. Love respects the inherent worth and dignity of all people. Love knows no borders.

In faith,

Ranwa Hammamy

Ranwa is a seminarian at  Union Theological Seminary, Vice President of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia Board, and serves on the Immigration Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania Legislative Advocacy Network.

PS: Don’t forget to send us your photos from the event!

The message above went out on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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