President Suspends Entry of Immigrants

On Wednesday, April 22, President Trump signed a new executive order banning many immigrants from entering the United States and prolonging family separation for at least the next 60 days. This seems to many immigrant advocates to be a blatant attempt to use the current public health and economic crises to accomplish this administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.

The president’s Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the US. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak will prevent individuals seeking to obtain a green card from entering the United States under the rationale that the U.S economy is in dire straits and the only way to protect it is to prevent new immigrants from arriving.  In fact, the Proclamation targets family-based immigration and constitutes a new form of family separation. The order bans nearly all parents and adult children of U.S. Citizens and spouses and children of green card holders from being reunited with their families while doing nothing to protect public health or U.S. jobs. It will simply cause the unnecessary of suffering of families who have been waiting for years to be reunited with their loved ones.

Please contact your Members of Congress and ask them to do all they can to reverse the harm to families and to our national values.

Sample Text: As your constituent from [CITY/TOWN], and as a Catholic sister, I urge you to reject President Trump’s anti-family and anti-immigrant executive order of April 22. My faith and our national values call us to protect families and welcome immigrants. This Proclamation threatens both.

Now more than ever, our values must guide our actions. The COVID-19 pandemic calls for unity to save lives and to save families. We need to protect one another, support one another, and love one another. This is the moral challenge of these times.

Millions of our immigrant neighbors are on the front lines confronting this pandemic as hospital workers, harvesting our food, delivering our groceries, and caring for our loved ones. They are risking their lives for us. We need to stand with them.

Have Faith in our Democracy

Join Faithful Democracy on Wednesday April 29^th at 12pm ET to hear how the faith community is mobilizing to ensure that the 2020 primary and general elections are safe and fair in the context of COVID 19.  Crucial issues of voting rights, public health and election security are emerging as key to any Get Out the Vote efforts.  Planning and preparations are needed now at the federal, state and local levels to protect our democracy during this pandemic.

• Rev. Traci Blackmon of the United Church of Christ will share what’s at stake for voting rights and communities of color.
• Hear the cautionary tale of Wisconsin’s recent primary election from Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice.
• Learn what leadership and funding is needed from the federal government to keep our democracy fair, safe and resilient in the face of the coronavirus.
• Find out what YOU can do as a person of faith and an advocate.

Register in advance for this webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H1zcwZL6RgaJp0uFmT7p4g

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Catholics For a Just and Sustainable Recovery

The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team and some of our partners have drafted a letter to members of Congress calling for a just and environmentally sustainable response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This letter has been written in light of Catholic social teaching, to alert members of Congress that our faith calls us to meet hurting communities’ immediate needs and also to shape a recovery that addresses the impacts of environmental degradation and climate change.

The Dominican Sisters of Peace have signed on to this letter, which you can read here.