From Justice for Immigrants from the US Bishops Conference:
Immediate Action Needed: Please urge your Senators and Representative to oppose legislative efforts to strip protections away from unaccompanied children who are fleeing from violence in Central America and seeking refuge in the United States. This includes, among others, efforts to reduce protections by changing the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act (2008) or the Homeland Security Act (2002). Urge them to pass a supplemental that provides for the care and protection of vulnerable children, ensures that their due process rights are preserved, and addresses the root causes of their flight, particularly violence in their home countries. Also, use part of the supplemental to fully restore critical ORR FY2014 funding for refugees and all the other vulnerable populations under the care of ORR.Background: Central American children are continuing to flee the rampant violence in their countries. Some travel to the United States seeking refuge and are placed under ORR’s care. With the fourth quarter just beginning, the number of arriving children has well-exceeded projections for the full fiscal year. ORR notified Congress that it will reprogram $94 million to begin to meet the needs of the vulnerable children by taking funding from refugees and the other vulnerable populations under its care. These populations include refugees, unaccompanied refugee minors, asylees, Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrants, Cuban/Haitian entrants, and victims of torture, trafficking, and serious crime. Without critical supplemental funding in FY2014 and continued robust funding in FY2015, vital programs that assist refugees, unaccompanied children and other vulnerable populations and support communities that welcome them will continue facing the loss of significant funding and capacity. ORR is already chronically underfunded. These cuts would have devastating consequences for ORR’s vulnerable populations and the communities that welcome them. The White House has asked Congress for more discretionary enforcement authority over the children. This would reduce the children’s due process, refugee protections, child protections, and protection from human traffickers. The Administration also has asked Congress to pass an FY2014 emergency supplemental of $3.7 billion to address the urgent humanitarian situation, including $1.83 billion for ORR to assure proper care of the children and to assure proper funding for FY2014 for refugees and all other populations under ORR’s care. Please take the following actions and spread the word about this urgent alert: Call both your Senators and your Representative. You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or find their direct office lines on their websites at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Tell them:
Meet with your Senators and Representative or their staff members in your local home state and district. A toolkit for meeting with your Members of Congress can be found at rcusa.org/wrd2014. Use the above asks and messages. Write your Representative and Senators. Find their addresses on their websites at www.house.gov andwww.senate.gov. See accompanying sample letter. |