From the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (http://www.interfaithimmigration.org):
Organizations and individuals can sign on to this letter here: https://bit.ly/JuneSignOnForm by June 12
The COVID-19 crisis is testing our strength as a society. Across faith traditions, we believe that all people have inherent dignity and are deserving of basic human rights. When individuals are left to contract COVID-19 and die in detention facilities; deported inhumanely; or prevented from seeking the safety of asylum, we are not honoring that dignity or recognizing their humanity. These immigration policies are unacceptable to our faith communities, who see the image of God in every human being.
As people of faith, we call on the U.S., state, and local governments to:
- Restore asylum protections. Seeking protection from violence and persecution is essential.
- Prevent family separation and family detention. ICE must not create unnecessary harm by separating children from their parents but instead release families together using community-based alternatives to detention — in the interest of public health — while they continue to pursue their cases in court.
- Free large numbers of individuals from federal, state, and local prisons and jails. As doctors warned, without mass depopulation, our jails, prisons, and detention centers have become COVID hotspots. We cannot stand by and allow people to die from this virus through simple neglect and denial.
- End the massive immigration detention system and allow detainees to go home to their families. Detained for civil immigration reasons, immigrants are contracting COVID-19 at alarming rates in ICE detention.
- Stop transferring and deporting people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transporting individuals from one jail to another, or deporting them to other countries, only spreads the virus and kills more people, while separating and traumatizing families.
Add your name to this important open letter to the US government. Deadline to sign is June 12.
A complete toolkit is available here. Please share the toolkit and sign on letter far and wide!
- Letter text: https://bit.ly/IICJuneLetter
- Letter sign on form: https://bit.ly/JuneSignOnForm
- Full toolkit: https://bit.ly/JuneFaithToolkit
Thank you for your support!
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