Category: Action

Action, News and Events, RVUSA News and Updates

Weekly Action Update – May 31, 2017

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Speak up for the environment.

The 2016 ratification of the Paris Agreement was an unprecedented global response to climate change. The Agreement’s 143 signatories, including the United States, formally committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to slow the pace of climate change. Today is the day to call your elected officials, including the President (202-456-1111). When you reach them, urge them to make the environment a higher priority than the interest of large fossil fuel companies. Find your members here.
 

Let your elected officials know what you think about the President’s budget

The President released his proposed budget last week, and now the negotiation process begins between him and Congress. You can read more about the proposed budget here. Your elected officials will ultimately decide the fate of the budget. Contact them and urge them to consider your funding priorities in the final version of the budget.

Raise your voice for healthcare

The House vote on the American Healthcare Act is not the end of the healthcare debate. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it will be revised. This guide from Indivisible outlines the ways you can raise your voice and advocate for a more equitable and compassionate healthcare system. As the Senate develops their own version of a healthcare bill, they need to see that we will hold our elected officials accountable for their votes, and they do need to hear from us. Find your elected officials’ contact information here. 

 

Action, Immigration, RVUSA Priority Issues

Response to Immigration Raids and Attacks (Indivisible)

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INDIVISIBLE

RESPONSE TO IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND OTHER ATTACKS AGAINST IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

A priority for the Trump administration is to wage a concerted attack against immigrants and refugees. We’ve already seen what this looks like: Muslim and Refugee bans, ramped-up internal immigration enforcement, racial pro ling, harassment, and privacy violations at the US border. This is only the beginning. Trump is gearing up to unleash a wave of raids that will be unprecedented in both number and intensity.

It is no exaggeration to say that ICE agents are now terrorizing our communities, our neighbors, and our families. Immigrants fearful of being detained and separated from their families are being pushed deeper into the shadows. This is not who we are, and this is not what the majority of Americans voted for.

WE STAND INDIVISIBLE WITH IMMIGRANTS

Trump won’t stop terrorizing immigrants on his own—it is up to all of us to stop him. Fighting back on these attacks remains a top priority for Indivisible. We strongly believe that all of Trump’s anti- immigrant policies can be stopped by Congress. Indivisible will continue to pressure MoCs to do their job, to protect families from being torn apart, and to protect democracy from this aspiring tyrant. But protecting our communities will require an even greater commitment. To this end, we will support local efforts intended to shield immigrants and other vulnerable communities from the terror brought upon them by this administration.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?

While Indivisible’s mission is to empower groups to realize their constituent power through congressional advocacy, we also want to recognize how important this issue is for all of us. Below are some suggested local activities to help protect immigrants and to ght back these anti-immigrant attacks.

  1. Connect and support local immigrant rights organizations. Local immigration groups will be on the front lines protecting families against Trump’s deportation force—and they need your help! We recommend connecting with these groups in your area. Invite them to your meetings, share their resources, sign up for their alerts. You may need to do a little bit of research to nd out what groups operate near you, but here is one directory to get you started.

  2. Help spread “Know Your Rights” materials in your community. You and your neighbors may have lots of questions about what legal rights and protections immigrants have. Being informed can be the key difference between a parent being able to come home to their kids or nding themselves in ICE custody. We encourage you to read up on what those rights are and help disseminate them with your friends and family. You can nd resources here and here.

  3. Make sure local of cials aren’t facilitating immigration raids. In some cases, local of cials, including police departments, are assisting ICE of cers in their immigration raids. This should not be their job. Turning police of cers into immigration of cers does more harm than good and undermines the community’s trust of police of cers. Talk to your local of cials and let them know that you don’t want them acting as immigration of cers. For talking points see here.

    www.indivisibleguide.com | www.facebook.com/indivisibleguide | @IndivisibleTeam
    INDIVISIBLE: BY FORMER CONGRESSIONAL STAFF. FOR THE RESISTANCE. 1

4. Push your local government and other institutions to adopt “sanctuary” policies. Cities, local and state governments, colleges and universities, hospitals and clinics, and places of worship are adopting policies to help protect immigrants from immigration enforcement. A sanctuary policy is not a refusal to follow the law – it is a commitment to refuse to unnecessarily cooperate with immigration of cers. For more information about sanctuary policies, see here.

www.indivisibleguide.com | www.facebook.com/indivisibleguide | @IndivisibleTeam
INDIVISIBLE: BY FORMER CONGRESSIONAL STAFF. FOR THE RESISTANCE. 2 

Action, Education, RVUSA Priority Issues

Oppose HR 610, a Bill Designed to Push School Privatization

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Please let your Congressional Representatives know that you strongly oppose HR 610.

This bill would reduce funding to public schools while demanding that school vouchers be allowed for states to receive funding. It would also reduce the nutritional quality of school lunches. Public dollars should go to public schools. HR 610 is an underhanded attempt to push school privatization.  

Find your members of Congress (MoC) here.

Action

Tell the FBI: Keep Accepting Freedom of Information Act Requests Via Email

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The FBI is planning to take a big step backward for government transparency. As of March 1, the agency will no longer accept Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests via email. Anyone seeking public records from the bureau will have to use a new online portal — or send requests via fax or snail mail.

Online FOIA portals may seem like a good idea in theory, but in reality, government agencies make them difficult and cumbersome to use and they include unnecessary hurdles.

The Freedom of Information Act gives us a legal right to request public records, which allow journalists and watchdogs to hold the government accountable.

Sign this online petition link, and tell the FBI to keep its FOIA email up and running and to drop the arbitrary restrictions.

Action, Civic and Voter Engagement, RVUSA Priority Issues

Tom Suozzi Town Hall Meeting

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Long Islanders – if you are in Tom Suozzi’s congressional district, he is hosting a Town Hall this Thursday, February 23 at 7pm at the Mid-Island Y, 45 Manetto Hill Road, Plainview, NY.

Attend if you can, help spread the word, and raise your voice about the issues that matter to you!

Action, Civic and Voter Engagement, RVUSA Priority Issues

Attend a Resistance Recess Event: Save Our Healthcare, Our Communities, and Our Democracy

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The week of February 18–26 is the first recess of the 115th Congress—time specifically set aside for members of Congress to meet with constituents and get the pulse of the communities they represent. 

This is the perfect time to raise our voices. We will show up at our elected officials’ events, town halls, other public appearances, and even plan our own events, if they refuse to meet with us, to make it clear to those who represent us, as well as to the media, that tolerance of Trump’s hurtful agenda is unacceptable and politically toxic. 

Will you join fellow constituents and attend a Resistance Recess action near you?

Click here to enter your ZIP Code or view the map to search for an event near you. If you don’t see an event with your member of Congress listed, click “Create a New Event” below and add your event! We’ll help recruit fellow constituents to join you.

Action

Protect the Consumer Protection Agency

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In just a few short years, the CFPB has reined in abuses by debt collectors, taken on for-profit colleges, protected home-buyers from unscrupulous lenders, investigated predatory private student loan companies, insisted on mortgage safeguards, recouped millions for military families who were overcharged or lost homes to foreclosure, unearthed the unethical practices of student debt collectors and shed light on dozens of predatory lending practices and consumer scams.

Since it was created in 2011, the CFPB has returned roughly $11.8 billion to 29 million consumers. That’s an average of $407 for the equivalent of 9 percent of the U.S. population.

Yet, the Consumer Protection Agency is now at risk of being defunded, eliminating a fund that the CFPB uses to reimburse victims of fraud, allowing other regulators overrule the agency, with limits placed on what kind of data CFPB can collect.

We know that Senator Warren will fight fiercely for her brainchild and will work hard to protect millions of everyday Americans.

Click here to sign a petition to Protect our Consumer Protection Agency.

Action, Immigration, RVUSA Priority Issues

Hotline to Report Incidents of Bias and Discrimination

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We have had reports from members who have gone to airports to volunteer their time as translators, and have witnessed terrible discrimination, even during the stay of the ban. 

We have had reports from members who have gone to airports to volunteer their time as translators, and have witnessed terrible discrimination, even during the stay of the ban. 

Please click here to call Governor Cuomo’s office hotline, and raise your voice if you see any incidents of bias and/or discrimination.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-statewide-hotline-report-incidents-bias-and-discrimination

 

Action

Call to Protest Steve Bannon

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Please call
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security is taking comments right now about the appointment of Steve Bannon to the National Security Council at this line:
202-224-4751

Bannon, as a white nationalist and self-described “Leninist [who wants] to destroy the system,” is an active threat to U.S. and perhaps world stability, call and register your protest. 

The calls are coming so quickly there is a recorded voice asking for name and number for call back. 

PLEASE call NOW.

Action, Immigration, RVUSA Priority Issues

Tell Congress: Rescind Trump’s Muslim ban

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The petition to Congress reads: 

“Support legislation to stop Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and anti-Muslim attack on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.”

Democrats, including progressive champion Senator Chris Murphy and ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Dianne Feinstein, are introducing legislation to stop Trump’s Muslim ban, and we need to build support for them now.

Both Senators Murphy and Feinstein have stated that they will be introducing legislation to protect refugee and immigrant communities within the next week. Senator Murphy is introducing legislation to “immediately overturn Trump’s hateful and dangerous executive order.” The bill would withhold any funding to enforce the executive order and declares it illegal based on the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which banned discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin.

Similarly, the first of two bills that Senator Feinstein is introducing will rescind the executive order. Her second bill will amend the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act to add extra layers of protection to block the president’s authority to single out groups of people to bar from entering the United States. As long as immigrants, refugees and their families are under attack, we need to push our elected officials in Congress to fight back. They must reject any efforts to use xenophobia and racism to justify deportations, the suspension of civil rights or the closure of our borders.

Sign the petition here:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block_refugee_eo?t=4&akid=21534.12326657.yZvwd9