Denounce Trump’s White Nationalism (From our friends at Indivisible)
Let’s review just a few highlights from a week of Trump’s racist, xenophobic agenda:
✔️ Reports from the concentration camps at the border continue to be horrific with immigrants in overcrowded conditions pleading with Vice President Pence during his visit for showers and toothbrushes.
✔️ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids continue (as they do every day in this country) to separate families.
✔️ In a move that is not only immoral but illegal, Trump moves to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants.
✔️ Trump tweets (and double downs on) racist attacks on courageous women of color leading the fight in Congress to speak truth to power.
All of these things have one thing in common: cruelty is the point. And they all serve as a reminder of why this fight to demand more moral clarity of the leaders working to hold him accountable is so important (looking at you, House Democrats).
We know you get it. On Friday, you showed up with tens (and tens and tens) of thousands of people at more than 817 vigils across 5 continents for Lights of Liberty to call on Congress to #CloseTheCamps and end detention (if you missed some of our favorite highlights, click here).
But these vigils must be just a starting point to what has to be a much larger fight to #DefundHate and ensure Congress does all that it can to rein in Trump’s constant attacks on Black and brown communities.
The good news is August recess, when your members of Congress head home to work in their districts on your turf, starts on Monday, July 29. It is the perfect time for you to turn up the pressure.
Right now, they need to hear from you (the people who sent them to Washington in the first place) on impeachment and that you will not accept any vote to increase funding for ICE and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) this September during the budget fight. Remember: many of them voted three weeks ago to give ICE more money through Trump’s supplemental Department of Homeland Security funding request and still need to hear from you on that disappointing vote.
- Demand that your MoC #CloseTheCamps by working to Defund Hate. The funding that Congress gives agencies like ICE and CBP is the root of all of the atrocities we have seen Trump commit against immigrant families and communities. Call your member of Congress and tell them that you expect them to cut funding to these agencies as part of the appropriations process this year.
- Tell your MoC that it’s time to start the impeachment process.Democrats don’t need to wait until Robert Mueller testifies on July 24 to know that Trump’s cruelty, corruption, and lawlessness are impeachment-worthy. Call your member of Congress today and tell them to start an impeachment inquiry by supporting H.Res.257.
- It’s time for your MoC to vote to #RaiseTheWage. The House will vote later this week on H.R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act, to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. But Republicans are sure to offer a motion to recommit to try to divide Democrats and stall this bill, which would fulfill a key promise Democrats made before the 2018 midterms. Call your member of Congress and tell them to vote YES on H.R. 582, and NO on any amendments or Republican motions to recommit that would weaken it.
