Call PA Senators and Your Representative to Say NO to the RAISE Act—Protect Refugees/Immigrants

From Church World Service (http://www.churchworldservice.org):

Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) have introduced the “Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy” (RAISE) Act, which has garnered support from President Trump and white nativists. If passed this legislation would permanently cap refugee admissions, make family reunification inaccessible and it would eliminate the ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor their brothers and sisters. We urge you to take action TODAY and urge your Members of Congress to reject this anti-family and anti-refugee legislation: https://greateras1.org/stop-raise-act-separating-families-reducing-refugee-resettlement/.

CALL OUR SENATORS & REPRESENTATIVE TODAY: 202-224-3121—or call directly; find contact information in the following locations:

• Senator Robert Casey: http://casey.senate.gov
• Senator Pat Toomey: http://toomey.senate.gov
• Your Representative: http://www.house.gov

Here’s what you can say: “I’m your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and as a person of faith I am strongly OPPOSED to Senators Cotton and Perdue’s RAISE Act. This bill would permanently cut refugee resettlement numbers to historic lows, make family reunification inaccessible, and essentially only permit individuals who have certain education levels, employment history, and English-language ability to enter the United States. I urge you to reject this bill and do everything in your power to see that it does NOT become law.”

The need to reform our immigration system is clear, however, the RAISE Act is not the way to do it. In addition to making family reunification inaccessible this bill would also:

• Permanently cap refugee admissions at 50,000 per year, the lowest resettlement goal in U.S. history, during the largest global refugee crisis in world history.
• Create an impossible process for U.S. citizens to sponsor their parents for five-year visas, during which time the parents would not be able to work and the child would have to cover all expenses and health insurance costs.
• Stop green card holders from sponsoring their children over the age of 18.
• Make family-based visas for spouses and children harder to access by reducing the overall number of visas available based on the number of individuals who overstay their visas.
• Bar individuals from applying for U.S. citizenship if their family sponsor has not reimbursed the government for any expenses incurred.
• Delete individuals’ applications for eliminated visas, unless they have only one more year in the backlog, leaving approximately four million people, who have been promised a visa but are waiting in line for it to become available, without any opportunity to reunite with their family members
• Essentially only permit individuals who have certain education levels, work history, English-language ability, or high-paying job offers to enter the United States
• Reduce legal immigration channels by 50-70 percent, with an 85 percent cut to family-based immigration,
• Not increase skills-based immigration, or increase jobs or wages for the U.S.-born, as such policies have failed in the past since immigrants do not depress wages or reduce job growth

You can read more about what this bill does and why we oppose it in our statement here.