Author: Emma Buckhout
Stand with children and families seeking protection—Sign the petition to Congress to reject the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee executive orders>>
On March 6th, President Trump issued a new version of his refugee and travel ban executive order. While the White House made minor changes to evade the media outcry and court arguments against the original version, its core message of fear-mongering and discrimination against refugees, immigrants, and Muslims remains the same. And it denies protection to some of the world’s most vulnerable individuals and families—overseas as well as in Central America.
Effective March 16th, the new order uses national security and anti-terrorism rhetoric to justify banning people from six Muslim-majority countries—Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—for 90 days or beyond, despite the DHS memo released last week concluding that citizenship is not a good indicator of terrorist ties. Furthermore, though refugees are the most thoroughly vetted immigrants in the United States, the order also mandates a complete halt of all refugee resettlement for 120 days, and drastically reduces the number of refugees the United States will accept in fiscal year 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000.
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. It’s up to us to stand up for compassion over hate.
1. 
Sign our petition to Congress to stand for compassionate immigration and refugee policies and to END unjust and unreasonable executive orders. Click here>>
2. Share the petition with your friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter!
3. Send the same message to the White House contact page and comment on a post on the White House Facebook page.
Suggested message: “Dear President Trump, as a proud American I urge you uphold our American values and to keep America welcoming immigrants and refugees. I oppose your 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, and halt refugee resettlement. These policies undermine our fundamental American values of welcoming the immigrants and refugees who truly make our nation great. I urge you to do everything in your power to see these announcements reversed, and to stand in solidarity with our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”
4. Organize a community response with this Rapid Response and Mobilization Toolkit to oppose the executive orders against refugees and immigrants.
5. Reach out to your partners in the business, health, educator, law enforcement, and faith community! Urge them to sign onto these sector-specific letters supporting resettlement and opposing discrimination:
- Pro-Refugee Business Letter
- Pro-Refugee Educators Letter
- Pro-Refugee Law Enforcement Letter
- Pro-Refugee Health Sector Letter
- Updated Faith Leader Letter: Welcome Refugees of all Nationalities & Religions
Trump’s executive orders threaten human rights and go against our American values. Together we must SPEAK OUT to denounce these actions and stand in solidarity with immigrants and refugees.
