Dear MoveOn member,
The violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the hands of white supremacists last weekend has turned national attention to the surge of bigoted hate speech and actions in America. Over recent months, brutal attacks have increased against many communities, including Black people, Muslims, Jews, the LGBT community, women, and, of course, immigrants. We, along with many others, are ready to stand up to these attacks, and just this past weekend, tens of thousands of Americans did just that at more than 600 spontaneous vigils and rallies across our nation.
The escalation of hateful action is being accompanied by aggressive, state-sanctioned attacks on immigrants. Brutal deportations are tearing apart families, as immigration enforcement officers detain people who have lived in the United States for decades.
And now, an attack on an essential protection for immigrants could, within weeks, strip more than 800,000 immigrant youth who arrived in the United States as children of the opportunity to go to school, enter the nation's workforce, and support their families.1
That's why we teamed up with the immigrant rights organization United We Dream (UWD) to make a new video featuring Greisa Martinez, UWD's Advocacy Director, talking about DACA—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program—which provides legal protection for more than 800,000 immigrants, and which is currently under attack.
Will you take a minute to watch this important video?
(Not on Facebook? Click here to watch the video on YouTube.)
Within weeks, the Trump administration could decide to end a critical program that protects immigrant youth. Unless we all act to show an outpouring of public support right now, 800,000 immigrant youth could be torn from their families, whether through immigration roundups at traffic stops and schools or through mass detainment and deportation.
This is why tomorrow, Tuesday, August 15, on the fifth anniversary of DACA, immigrant youth have organized dozens of events nationwide to show their pride and declare that they—and DACA—are #HereToStay. We encourage you to watch the video and learn how you can become involved in this fight to defend the rights and lives of our immigrant friends and neighbors.
Here are a few highlights from Greisa's interview:
"I came to the U.S. when I was seven years old, and all throughout growing up, the time before DACA, I was just really scared. The reality is, is that getting rid of DACA, it's a life-and-death issue for us."
"DACA means family. DACA means home. And for me, DACA means that I can help my mom out. She's currently fighting cancer, and I get to be able to help her get the medicines that she needs and the chemo treatments that she needs to be able to do that."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and AGs from nine other states want President Trump to phase out DACA.2
"So, right now we're facing an imminent threat ... it's 800,000 young people whose lives would be completely upended if DACA were not in place."
In the coming days and weeks, MoveOn members will rally with Greisa, United We Dream, and allied organizations to #DefendDACA and ensure that our nation lives up to its best values of dignity and justice for all, from tomorrow's nationwide events to more actions to come.
This weekend has seen an inspiring response to the wrenching violence in Charlottesville, as Americans of good conscience across the country have gathered in solidarity at hundreds of vigils and rallies, donated to groups doing work against racism, and explicitly condemned white supremacy. Now, it's essential that this same energy focuses on the real and dire threat facing America's immigrant youth who are part of the DACA program.
The first step is watching and sharing Greisa's interview. Together we can build the broad and unyielding public support it'll take to defend DACA and continue to build on the movement for justice for every community fighting against xenophobia, white supremacy, and hatred
Together we are strong.
Thanks for all you do.
—Corinne, Michael, Anne, Elsie, and the rest of the team
1. "Texas AG leads push to end DACA," Politico, June 29, 2017
http://act.moveon.org/go/11124?t=19&akid=188139%2E10220574%2EzqKLal
2. Ibid.
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on August 14th, 2017. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment