Advocacy Update
August 2005

Congress Members Go Home in August: Welcome Them With Support for Refugees and Immigrants
By Bernadette Passade Cissé, LIRS Vice President for Policy and Advocacy

This issue’s “From the President’s Desk” column highlights the town of Utica, N.Y., and its welcoming of refugees who have been agents of change—turning a town in decline into a town whose economy is now thriving and growing. One of Utica’s residents is a Haitian American woman who arrived in the United States as a resettled refugee in 1994. Just two years later she became an LIRS donor, and is now a faithful major contributor. She is not a millionaire. In fact, she works two jobs to make ends meet. But she is grateful, and her donations often come with words of thanks to LIRS for saving her life.

Her transformation from victim of a dictatorship to citizen of the United States and financial donor to LIRS is an example of what happens throughout this country when we open hearts and doors to newcomers in our midst. Her story reminds us of our nation’s clear interest in supporting fair refugee and immigration policies. Many individuals, congregations and communities throughout the country have similar stories to tell, and the August congressional recess, when members are in their districts, presents a great opportunity to tell those stories.

LIRS relies on our friends and partners to express their views to their elected officials. Will you take the opportunity during the August recess to ask your representatives to support fair policies for all immigrants? In particular, remind them of your support for the following:

• Increased federal funding for refugee programs and more generous refugee resettlement admissions, including $985 million for the Department of State and $667 million for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement for fiscal year 2006 to admit at least 90,000 refugees
• Access to asylum outside of detention facilities for those fleeing persecution, Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, and $2 million to the Department of Homeland Security for legal orientation programs for noncitizens in detention
• Passage of comprehensive immigration reform legislation, starting with the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 (S.1033/H.R.2330), which unites families, protects the human rights of workers, provides a path to permanent status in the United States, and ends the marginalization of the undocumented
• Passage of the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2005 (S.119)

The refugees in Utica, representative of many of our refugee and immigrant neighbors throughout the country, live in dignity because of fair refugee and immigration policies and laws. Help us tell our government this summer that the fair policies and laws we support reflect our belief that every human life is sacred, and this belief is the value that sustains our stand for liberty.

Read past Advocacy/Washington Updates.