Author: Emma Buckhout
March 15, 7pm UPDATE: News was just released that a Hawaii judge granted the request for a nationwide temporary restraining order to put Trump’s refugee and travel ban on hold!
This is a huge victory against hate, but the legal fight is far from over and we need to keep up the pressure for justice! Please continue to speak out to show your support for immigrants and refugees by taking the actions below, especially contacting your members of Congress.
Here are updated Facebook and Twitter posts. Stay tuned for more updates!
At 12:01am tomorrow, March 16th, President Trump’s rewritten refugee and travel ban executive order goes into effect. Despite several technical fixes to attempt to evade the legal challenges against it, the order’s impact remains the same. It bans individuals from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, halts all refugee resettlement in the United States, and spreads fear and discrimination throughout our communities. It denies protection to some of the world’s most vulnerable people—including Central American children and families fleeing ongoing violence and corruption.
We’re asking for your help to mobilize and resist hate. Tell our government you reject the Refugee and Travel Ban 2.0, and they should too. ACT NOW: See the following calls to action below>>
We know that hundreds of thousands of children, women, and men are being forced to flee their homes due to horrific levels of violence, corruption, impunity, and poverty in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The UN Refugee Agency has said that the majority of them qualify for refugee protection. As violence continues to worsen in their home countries and as they search for protection, this order threatens to reduce their already limited chance for asylum and safety.
Together with Trump’s other immigration enforcement and border security orders, this executive action undermines our fundamental American values of welcoming immigrants and refugees, who truly make our nation great. Moreover, these orders do NOT constitute commonsense spending or security measures. This isn’t who we are as a nation, and it’s not who we want to become.
For advocates (YOU) far and wide:
1. Get the word out: NO to hate, NO to the ban! Share this image on Facebook and Twitter.
Suggested message: Refugee and Travel Ban 2.0 are frozen, but the fight continues. Will you #ResistTheBan? Stand #WithRefugees: http://lawg.org/ResistTheBan
2. Sign our petition urging Congress to stand for compassionate immigration and refugee policies and to END unjust and unreasonable executive orders.
Click here>>
We want to deliver as many signatures as we can to congressional leadership at the end of the month, so please share with friends and family via email, Facebook, and Twitter!
3. Call your members of Congress TODAY!
Find your senators and representative here.
Sample Script: “I’m your constituent from [City, State], and I support welcoming immigrants and refugees. I strongly oppose President Trump’s executive order against refugees, as well as his orders to build a massive border wall, increase militarized border and immigration enforcement, lock up individuals and families arriving at our border in search of protection, end federal funding for sanctuary cities. These will deny protection to some of the world’s most vulnerable children and families, including those fleeing violence in Central America. This is morally reprehensible and does not reflect the welcome for immigrants refugees I see in my community every day. I urge you to do everything in your power to see the Refugee and Travel Ban, as well as immigration enforcement executive orders rescinded.”
You can also tweet @ your Senators/Representatives with the same message!
4. Send the same message to the White House contact page and comment on a post on the White House Facebook page.
For advocates in the Washington, DC area:
1. Join LAWG and refugees, faith leaders, legal and security experts, and government officials at a press conference at 11am tomorrow, March 16th in front of the White House to discuss the benefits that refugees and asylum seekers bring to American communities, the widespread devastation Trump’s policy will cause to families, businesses, and communities, and what advocates around the country can do to publicly oppose Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee policy.
2. Join the protest against the executive order at Dulles airport. See information here.
