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Dear {{ user.first_name|default:”Friend” }},
The Senate could vote as early as today about whether or not to send Central American refugee children back home to poverty, violence, and possibly death.
The Senate is fast tracking a vote on the immoral and deceptively named ‘HUMANE Act,’ which would deny refugee and humanitarian protection for suffering children and instead speed up deportations. Current law prevents the immediate deportation of Central American children who are threatened by violence and abuse in their home countries.1 The HUMANE Act would change that, endangering the children when they should be protected instead.
Two weeks ago, thousands of Presente members signed a petition urging the Senate to reject the HUMANE Act. The Senate might vote on the bill as soon as today, so this is our last chance to make sure they hear our message loud and clear.
Let’s stop the in-HUMANE Act on its tracks!
President Obama has expressed that he’s ready to sign the HUMANE Act as part of a nefarious bargain to get approval for a $3.7 billion emergency request to Congress to deal with the humanitarian crisis of tens of thousands unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Spending $3.7 billion on increased border militarization, more detention facilities, and a media campaign to dissuade Central Americans from coming to the U.S. is not the way to respond to a humanitarian crisis. Putting children at greater risk is even worse.2
Children should not be used as a bargaining chip within an equally bad approach to the crisis at the border. Even former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who previously supported sending the children back, is now saying that changing the law that currently protects refugee children against immediate deportation would be wrong.3
Together, we’ve fought to influence the public debate so we can find humanitarian solutions to the crisis at the border. Most Americans now agree that the children are indeed refugees and should be given protected status.4 And this week we can make sure we take our message to the Senate as well — it’s our moral responsibility to treat the Central American refugee children with compassion by protecting them, not deporting them to their likely deaths!
Thanks and ¡adelante!
Refugio, Arturo, Mariana, and the rest of the Presente.org Team
P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.
Sources:
1. This Bill Is Dubbed The HUMANE Act, But It Actually Hurts The Migrant Kids It Claims To Protect, Think Progress, July 17, 2014
2. The process Congress wants to use for child migrants is a disaster, Vox, July 15, 2014
3. Morning Plum: Hillary sharpens up stance on border crisis, The Washington Post, July 28, 2014
4. Most Americans See Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids As Refugees, Poll Says, The Huffington Post, July 29, 2014