Write Here! Write Now! Online Letter-Writing Platform

(Your Individual Typed Letter)

Urge our Senators to provide Immigrants access to aid in the next COVID relief bill and to strengthen oversight of DHS

All Senators need to hear from their constituents, especially those on the Appropriations Committee. 

Our UU Principles compel us to affirm that all immigrants, regardless of legal status, should be treated justly and humanely. This belief is amplified by our denomination’s 2013 Statement of Conscience on “Immigration as a Moral Issue” ​and the 2019 Action of Immediate Witness “Protect the Rights of immigrants and Asylum Seekers.” 

The Senate hasn’t passed a new COVID relief bill. As negotiations resume, testing, treatment, as well as relief payments, must go to all vulnerable families-- regardless of citizenship status. Also, the Senate will take up FY21 funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and senators must insist that DHS does not reprogram funds from other agencies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for enforcement, family separation, or border wall construction.

Talking Points

• The Senate should pass a new COVID relief bill including testing, treatment, and economic aid for immigrant families who were excluded in past relief bills, like in the House HEROES Act. Doing so will help the entire community where they reside.
• The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration agencies need to be transformed into reputable, non-politicized organizations which efficiently, professionally, and humanely implement reasonable immigration and customs policies. ICE and CBP should be agencies that prioritize effective alternatives to detention. They should stop separating children from their families, delaying access to asylum-consideration, and detaining people for migration-related offenses.  
• DHS must not reprogram funds from other agencies to ICE/CBP for enforcement. DHS has recently demonstrated a stronger need for Congressional oversight, more transparency, and better responsiveness to correct abuses. The DHS FY21 appropriations should include such provisions.  
• We deserve federal programs applied in the field that do not diminish basic human dignity. Americans are better than that, our government should be also. We should treat immigrants with compassion and dignity and honor our faith traditions of welcoming the stranger.

Sample Type Written Letter to Your Senators

[Use your own words. Speak from your heart  -- this is only a sample typed letter.]

I am a Unitarian Universalist from​ [optional: name of congregation and location]​, and supporter of the Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice.​ Guided by my faith, I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people and that no human being is illegal. I urge you to provide immigrants access to aid in the next COVID relief bill and to strengthen oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ensuring its agencies treat immigrants humanely.  

[Insert personal experience or pick one talking point in your own words, to support the main message.]

I care deeply about these issues. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection must have better oversight. We should not be a country that persecutes people legitimately seeking asylum and other legal pathways to residency and citizenship. Nor should we be a country which cruelly excludes hard-working families in frontline jobs from access to health testing and treatment and stimulus payments simply because of their citizenship status. 

[Adapt a closing such as…] Thank you for your consideration of my [concerns/story]. I look forward to your response. etc.)

Sincerely,