Dream and Promise Act—and what's next

Here's how MoveOn members like you supported the movement to pass the Dream Act!

Dear MoveOn member,

The Democratic-led House of Representatives just passed the most expansive legislation ever to protect immigrant youth—the Dream and Promise Act. This hard-fought milestone was won by immigrant youth who have refused to be silenced by the Trump administration. And MoveOn members like you, Eddie, have been there to back up the leaders of this vital movement every step of the way.

As we celebrate this important milestone, it's important to step back and acknowledge the work that got us here—and to use this momentum to push Congress to stop funding Donald Trump's brutal deportation force, which is attacking immigrants at the border and across the country.

The Dream and Promise Act lays the groundwork for the welcoming America that we are working toward building, but immigrants are facing attacks every day, and need us to fight back.

Will you sign this petition to demand Congress Defund Hate and ensure that the deportation force Trump uses to terrorize immigrant and refugee communities is held accountable?

In 2017, when Trump ended the successful Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—which granted legal status to young immigrants who had grown up in the United States to live, work, study, build homes in, and contribute to their communities—he threw 800,000 people and their families into chaos and uncertainty.

But brave activists continued to organize in the streets, in the courts, and in the halls of Congress. Here are some of the ways in which MoveOn members have joined this monumental campaign:

• More than 250,000 MoveOn members, from all walks of life, signed a petition calling for an immediate passing of a Dream Act, joining allies in a 1-million signature delivery to the White House. 
  

• MoveOn members joined events around the country, drove tens of thousands of calls to Congress, shared original videos that were seen tens of millions of times, and funded polling to show that a majority of all voters—Democrats, Republicans and independents—support Dreamers. 
  
  
  
• And in 2017, when Trump and Republicans shut down the government over his attacks on Dreamers, we stood with Dreamers to demand Democrats stay strong.
  
  

 

• Then, through 2018, we endorsed candidates for Congress who were clear in their support for Dreamers—and in the historic election last November, swept in a new Democratic majority capable of passing this important legislation.
  
  
• This year, MoveOn members raised nearly $70,000 to help DACA recipients pay their expensive DACA renewal application fees—providing direct support to immigrant youth who must pay $495 every two years to renew.

• And just this week, MoveOn members in key districts called their representatives to defeat a ploy by the Republicans to insert an amendment at the last minute that was designed to split the Democrats and kill the bill. After hearing from us, Reps. Abby Finkenauer (IA-01), Cindy Axne (IA-03), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Xochitl Torres Small (NM-02), Antonio Delgado (NY-19), Conor Lamb (PA-17), Elaine Luria (VA-02), and Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) voted the right way. And the final bill passed with every Democrat voting to extend protections to Dreamers.

Now, Trump and Republicans in Congress are continuing to push for more funding for out-of-control federal agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Border Patrol) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which are responsible for countless human rights abuses, including the deaths of at least six children in their custody in the last six months.

Our work to stand with immigrants and asylum seekers will happen on many fronts in the next two years:

We need to continue to fight for the Dream and Promise Act.

We need to block the Republicans' racist, xenophobic agenda—and that means continuing to defund the agencies carrying out Trump's anti-immigrant acts of terror, including the horrific detention and deportation machine of Border Patrol and ICE.

And we need to elect a new president and new senators ready to stand with Dreamers—and who see our nation as a place of respect and dignity for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

But, right now, we need to stop the harmful attacks our government is waging daily at the border and across the country. Will you sign now and demand Congress stop funding these out-of-control agencies and Defund Hate?

Let's take a moment to celebrate this historic moment, and then ready ourselves for the considerable work ahead.

Thanks for everything you do.

—Corinne, Emma, Tzyh, Schuyler, and the rest of the team

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 support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

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 June 8, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.