Dear MoveOn member,
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's first Muslim Ban—an early manifestation of Trump's infuriating campaign promise of a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims from entering the country" and his ongoing white supremacist agenda.1
Right now, Trump's Muslim Ban 3.0 is in effect and is indefinitely blocking people from five majority-Muslim countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen—while placing restrictions on a sixth majority-Muslim country, Chad.2 And just yesterday, Trump also released a proposal to cut immigration by 50%, including ending major portions of the family reunification program that allows people to sponsor their siblings, parents, and other close family members.3 Meanwhile, the livelihoods of over 800,000 DACA recipients and millions of others with post-natural disaster temporary protected status are still uncertain, because Trump is using them as a bargaining chip to get his border wall and pass more inhumane immigration policies.4
Make no mistake: These policies exemplify Trump's and the GOP's willingness to cater to white supremacists, inhumanely tear apart families, and keep Black and brown immigrants out of the United States.
Despite this, MoveOn members have stood strong in resistance against Trump's policies—and we can be proud of our work, drawing a clear moral line in the sand. Since Trump's election,
- MoveOn members took his campaign promise to implement a Muslim registry seriously and worked with our allies at DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), the ACLU, and many partners to proactively shut down a Bush-era Muslim registry program so Trump wouldn't be allowed to use it;
- when the first Muslim Ban was released, thousands of MoveOn members showed up to airports across the country to stand with Muslim communities, and tens of thousands more hung signs in their neighborhoods reading, "No Muslim Ban. No Border Wall. Our Cities Stand Tall";
- our Video Lab team made 22 videos around the Muslim Ban and combating Islamophobia that garnered over 15 million views—including a video that told the powerful story of Areej Ali, a green card holder, who was detained during the first Muslim Ban;
- we released a timely guidebook to progressive members of Congress, allies, and organizations on how to speak about the Muslim Ban while avoiding talking points that would harm Muslim communities;5
- we took the opportunity to contribute over $250,000 to many organizations on the front lines of Trump's attacks—including those working on immigrant rights;
- tens of thousands of MoveOn members have also added their signatures to petitions calling on Facebook and Twitter to take hate speech and the incitement of violence seriously on their platforms;
- and so much more!
While MoveOn members have focused during the past year on defending communities on the frontlines of Trump's attacks, in 2018, we're going on the offense, taking up the long-term fight against anti-Muslim racism along with allies in Muslim communities.
The fight against the Muslim Ban is far from over. And we know, from all the systemic ways Muslim communities have been targeted through surveillance, Guantánamo, wars, and law enforcement, that we need some serious change to shift the narrative and build pro-immigrant political power before it's too late.
We're also at an unprecedented moment where there is an opportunity to drastically shift the conversation around Muslim communities and get Democratic candidates, along with progressive organizations, the right tools for the 2018 elections. We already started the process by looking into existing research on Islamophobia and planning out our video persuasion tests to find the right messaging. If this is the year Democrats win big, we need to make sure they are clearly standing with Muslim communities against the anti-Muslim hate we will inevitably witness during an election year.
Thanks for all you do.
–Iram, Robert, Ilya, Jo, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Donald Trump Calls for Barring Muslims From Entering U.S," The New York Times, December 7, 2015
https://act.moveon.org/go/32204?t=16&akid=197799%2E10220574%2EHZhzxs
2. "Muslim Ban 3.0 Is Heading to Court — Here’s What You Need to Know Right Now," ACLU, October 13, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/32317?t=18&akid=197799%2E10220574%2EHZhzxs
3. "Trump’s 'chain migration' obsession: The Nazis thought of it first," Salon, January 17, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/32318?t=20&akid=197799%2E10220574%2EHZhzxs
4. "A New Clock Starts for a DACA Deal, but Time’s Already Running Out," The Nation, January 23, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/32319?t=22&akid=197799%2E10220574%2EHZhzxs
5. "No Muslim Ban Ever: How to Be a Progressive Ally," MoveOn, December 5, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/32436?t=24&akid=197799%2E10220574%2EHZhzxs
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.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on January 27th, 2018. 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