ACTION ALERT: How You Can Help Fight Family Separation at the Border
At HOPE, we are morally opposed to the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which has resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents at the Southern U.S. border. As a nation we have always protected the integrity and sanctity of family. The Trump Administration’s policy of separating children from their parents is cruel and un-American and must stop immediately.
As an organization dedicated to the economic and political parity of Latinas and the health and welfare of families, we stand with the president of the American Academy Pediatrics – this abuse of children must end.
HOPE is monitoring this rapidly-changing political situation and news has just broken that the White House may be drafting an executive action to stop family separations. We encourage the President to take this step. Our voices are needed now until there is an end to this devastating policy once and for all.
We are committed to taking action and offer the following list of resources you can use to take action today. We hope you will join us.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
· Call your U.S. Senator: the government will bend to public pressure, make sure your representative know you will not stand for the practice of needlessly separating children from their parents.
· March on June 30th: pledge to join #FamiliesBelongTogether actions around the country and in Washington D.C. Find an event near you here.
REGISTER & GET OUT THE VOTE
· Register to vote and vote on November 6th for representatives who believe and uphold policies and institutions that protect migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
· Make sure your friends and family are registered to vote. Let’s make our voice heard.
2. VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME OR HOUSE AN AFFECTED CHILD
· Volunteer to help families or other detained immigrants through the Immigration Justice Campaign.
· If you are an attorney, an interpreter, or fluent in a second language, call legal service providers to volunteer your services. Find a list here.
· Find out how you can foster children in need of a safe, stable home through the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops or the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
· Consider becoming a detention visitation volunteer.
3. DONATE TO ORGANIZATIONS ON THE GROUND
· Al Otro Lado is a binational organization that works to offer legal services to deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, including deportee parents whose children remain in the U.S.
· CARA—a consortium of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association—provides legal services at family detention centers.
· Kids in Need of Defense works to ensure that kids do not appear in immigration court without representation, and to lobby for policies that advocate for children’s legal interests. Donate here.
· RAICES is the largest immigration nonprofit in Texas offering free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families. Donate here and sign up as a volunteer here.
· Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights works for the rights of children in immigration proceedings.
· The Kino Border Initiative which provides humanitarian aid to refugees and migrants on both sides of the border has a list of supplies they can use to help migrants and families staying in the communities they serve.
· The National Immigrant Justice Center represents and advocates for detained adults and children facing removal, supports efforts at the border, and represents parents in the interior who have been separated from their families as a result of aggressive enforcement.
· Donate to Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the only local organization working with shelters in California that have unaccompanied minors.
