URGENT: Call the House Judiciary Committee today!
The following alert is circulated by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.
The House Judiciary Committee will be considering the Michael Davis Jr., in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act (HR 1148), a very negative bill that would harm our communities and congregations. Members of the House Judiciary Committee need to hear from people of faith that we continue to OPPOSE HR 1148 and urge them to instead enact legislation that keeps families together and protects children, migrants, refugees and other vulnerable persons.
The Michael Davis Jr., in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act (HR 1148), previously known as the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act, would eliminate the administration’s protection of DREAMers, expand immigration detention, criminalize overstaying a visa, and harm both community safety and vulnerable populations. Modeled after Arizona’s SB1070, this bill would encourage racial profiling by mandating that local police investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest and detain everyone who they suspect to be undocumented or deportable. The bill would increase and mandate programs that force local police to serve as immigration officials, even though many law enforcement officials, including the Major Cities Chiefs Association oppose these mandates. When police are seen as immigration enforcement agents, communities are less safe because many community members stop reporting crime out of fear that themselves, their family members or neighbors might be arrested due to their immigration status and deported.
HR 1148 would also negatively impact refugees, asylum seekers and others fleeing persecution by worsening expansive laws that have falsely labeled pro-democracy freedom fighters and victims of kidnapping, extortion, and rape as “terrorists” if they were coerced to provide goods or services to a terrorist group. And it would expand the immigration detention system that holds many torture survivors and asylum seekers by mandating the use of detention and authorizing indefinite detention for persons who have been ordered removed.
More resources on HR 1148, including faith letters, can be found here.
Call 1-866-940-2439 to be connected with the offices of House Judiciary Committee Members.
Here’s a sample script:
As a person of faith, I urge Representative (NAME) to OPPOSE HR 1148. The faith community is unanimously opposed to this bill because it would:
- encourage racial profiling and reduce community safety,
- negatively impact refugees, asylum seekers and others fleeing persecution, and
- expand mandatory and indefinite detention
I urge the House Judiciary Committee to reject this legislation. Please instead support legislation that protects migrants and the communities that welcome them and provides justice for all.
Keep up the pressure on social media!
Find your representative’s Twitter name on their website (www.house.gov) to urge Congress to oppose proposals that would hurt unaccompanied children by tweeting @[their twitter name]:
Ex: “.@Raul_Labrador- As a person of faith from Idaho, I oppose HR 1148 & urge you to support imm. policies with #justiceforall & #familyunity” (Note: the first period “.” is important.)
Follow @InterfaithImm on Twitter and “like” the Interfaith Immigration Coalition on Facebook to receive up-to-date alerts.