Congressional Advocacy Day – April 23, 2018
Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community, and its recognized partners and allies, grounded in biblical witness and our shared traditions of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Our goal, through worship, theological reflection and opportunities for learning and witness, is to strengthen our Christian voice and to mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues.
Participants: Click here to go to Quick Links for Lobby Day materials.
A World Uprooted:
Responding to Migrants, Refugees and Displaced People
Our world is experiencing massive upheaval and displacement due to violent conflicts, our changing climate and corruption. We call on Congress to act to help the world’s uprooted peoples, the majority of whom are children and women. Congress must:
- Implement just and compassionate immigration policies; and
- Confront root causes of forced displacement in light of U.S. policy.
We believe that God is with Dreamers, refugees, immigrants, outcasts and people struggling to overcome poverty. God calls us to offer hospitality to the immigrant and the sojourner, and to break down the dividing walls that separate us. Our faith teaches us the importance of keeping families together, welcoming newcomers with compassion and dignity, and aiding our neighbors in need across the world.
We call on Congress to act with compassion and exercise fiscal responsibility by redirecting funding used for deportations, detention and border militarization, and invest instead in our communities and support for refugees while increasing poverty-focused and peacebuilding international assistance to address the root causes of forced migration.
– Uphold the values of family unity and show compassion to the most vulnerable among us by redirecting funding away from the Department of Homeland Security for carrying out deportations that are separating families and sweeping up Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.
– Act humanely and cut waste by redirecting funding away from immigrant detention and end mandatory detention, particularly for asylum seekers, children, the elderly, the disabled and pregnant women. DHS should implement alternatives to immigrant detention, such as community-based release, which are more humane and more cost effective.
– Redirect unnecessary and wasteful funding away from border enforcement and refuse to approve additional funds for the border wall that would cut through wildlife refuges, require the seizing of private property, infringe on the sovereignty of native lands and further militarize already over-militarized border communities. Statistics show that unauthorized crossings are at their lowest level in 45 years, making such funding unwarranted.
– Invest in refugee resettlement, hold the administration accountable to resettling their goal of 45,000 refugees this year, and urge the administration to set a goal of at least 75,000 refugees to be resettled in fiscal year 2019.
– Invest in poverty-focused development assistance and agricultural aid for low-income countries and communities, which creates cost-effective and reliable clean water and sanitation facilities, improves health, makes primary education possible for tens of millions of people, and improves small-scale and women farmers access to inputs, technology, credit, and knowledge. By bringing jobs and hope to tens of millions of our neighbors in need, this assistance will help ensure that people have the capacity to stay in their home countries.
– Fully fund efforts to support vulnerable communities around the world build resilient infrastructure and ecosystems to respond to the effects of hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, prolonged droughts and wildfires, which unabated, lead to violent conflict, food shortages and migration.
– Invest in efforts that reduce violence and violent conflict, the leading causes of displacement worldwide. Fund programs that build cultures of peace, heal trauma, strengthen the rule of law, support human rights, protect marginalized communities and peaceful dissent, and strengthen judicial independence and anti-corruption mechanisms, while ceasing to fund the training of any police and armed forces implicated in human rights abuses and endemic corruption.
– Fully fund humanitarian relief efforts, including disaster relief and refugee assistance for the 65 million people in our world today who are uprooted and who live outside their home areas, either elsewhere within their own countries or in host countries.
Quick Links
- 2018 National Gathering & Lobby Day Sample Social Media Document
- 2018 Lobby Visit Planning Sheet
- 2018 “Leave Behind” Document (This document may also be used as a reference for shorter talking points for those calling in to Congress from other places on Lobby Day)
- 2018 Talking Points Document
- 2018 Congressional Visit Report Form – MS Word Doc OR complete it online via the event app.