Family Separation/Reunification
TAKE ACTION: A resource guide for contacting Members of Congress and action steps to take within our communities and homes.
Taking action, whether it be contacting your elected officials, writing a letter to the editor, or educating yourself and your friends and family can feel like a daunting task. What people often don’t realize is that there are countless toolkits, scripts, and guides accessible online that make it easy. Plus, taking action feels great!
Here are a few ways you can act to address family separations, family reunification, and common sense, bipartisan legislation:
Get Connected!
Joining an organization is one of the most effective ways to get involved and make a difference. Nonprofits and grassroots organizations need volunteers! Carefully assess and study what organization you feel suits your availability and priorities.
Contact Your Public Officials:
Contact methods sorted from the least effective to the most:
- Fax (just don’t do it)
- Mass generic deliveries to offices (straight to junk mail/recycling bin)
- Generic email to unspecified person or voicemail message
- Phone call to office staff (if it goes to voice mail, keep trying until you get an actual staffer)
- Mail (hand written and personalized, it will get their attention)
- Email/call to staff or Rep (useful after you’ve already made in-person contact)
- Visits with staff (connect with the staff member working on your issue)
- Visit with senior staff (they do a lot of the leg work anyways)
- Visits with actual Member of Congress (harder to come by)
Be civil and respectful but stand firm. Consider their perspective. Don’t forget that they are learning from you as well, so come prepared. Don’t burn your bridge by being rude. IT NEVER WORKS. Read through these Six Principles of Peacemaking to use as a framework for your approach:
https://www.mormonwomenforethicalgovernment.org/about-us/
Ready to contact your Member of Congress?
Visit https://www.callmycongress.com/
OR
Call (202) 224–3121 — you’ll be prompted to enter your zip code, then you can choose which of the three (your representative and two senators) to call.
- Ask your Members of Congress to work together to address comprehensive immigration reform by bipartisan legislation that will protect families and utilize our resources efficiently.
- Ask your representative to visit the border to personally observe what is happening to families seeking asylum.
- Ask your representative to also observe children who must sit in immigration hearings alone, without legal representation.
Tip: Save the phone numbers of the offices of your members of Congress in your phone to make it easier to call again in the future. Staffers keep a checklist of the issues constituents are calling about. You call call weekly or even daily!
Write:
Another way to shift public opinion and reach a representative is through writing an op-ed or letter to the editor for local newspapers. The staff of Members of Congress follow press coverage of issues in local, state, and national media. Moreover, they closely track references to their Member’s name in the media, so including specific calls to action for your representative and senators is a good idea.
A letter to the editor doesn’t have to be long; just think of it as if you were writing a post on Facebook. See the MomsRising website for more tools that make writing letters to the editor simple. Op-eds are usually somewhat longer, around 500–600 words in length. Check out the OpEd Project at www.theopedproject.org for more information and resources. Mormon Women for Ethical Government also has a writing lab that you can utilize if you are a member!
Donate:
The American Civil Liberties Union — Litigates immigration enforcement practices that infringe on civil rights.
Leaf Project — Works to ensure universal representation for unaccompanied children.
Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) — Provides free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrants.
Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights — Advocates for many of the separated and unaccompanied children.
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center — Provides legal representation to low-income immigrants and families seeking reunification.
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) — Works to ensure that kids do not appear in immigration court without representation.
Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) — Advocates for the rights of women, children and youth displaced by conflict and crisis.
Catholic Charities — Provides services to people in need, including immigrants and asylum seekers, and advocates for justice in social structures.
For more ideas and resources visit:
https://www.momsrising.org/blog/how-you-can-help-to-end-family-separation-right-now
https://www.mormonwomenforethicalgovernment.org
Current as of 06/23/2019, 2:20pm, Photo credit: Antonio Quintanilla
