|| LIRS || Advocacy Update -- August 2006

Advocacy Update
August 2006

Hope's Voice and Fulfillment
By Matt Wilch, LIRS Senior Counsel for Policy and Advocacy

As we at LIRS live out our mission of bringing new hope and life, our 10-year goals guide us in protecting those most at-risk—refugees, asylum seekers, children alone in the world and families fractured by migration.

Each goal represents the hopes of thousands of at-risk people. Amidst a refugee crisis and the national debate on immigration, LIRS seeks to revitalize refugee protection and support immigration reform that reunites families, protects human rights and civil rights, brings marginalized people out of the shadows and provides a path to permanence.

Theresa hopes for protection. A native of Sierra Leone, she was attacked by rebels who repeatedly struck her and her daughter with machetes, raped them and held them captive for days in their own home. Their resettlement to the United States was deferred on the grounds that the family had provided “material support” to an armed opposition group—by housing their attackers! Theresa and her daughter are among the 14,000 overseas refugees and 500 asylum seekers whose hope of protection is on hold because of this overreaching policy that became law with the USA Patriot and REAL ID Acts.

LIRS remains committed to the following 10-year advocacy goals, adopted by the board of directors in October 2004:

Expand and revitalize refugee and asylum protection.
Assure the integration of refugees and asylees into welcoming communities.
End senseless immigration detention and release migrants to welcoming communities.
Guarantee that the most vulnerable migrants have legal representation.
Protect and care for migrant children who are alone in the world.
Reunite families.
Accord basic civil liberties to migrants.

Many Burmese refugees also hope for safety. Having fled religious and ethnic persecution, they are also among those whose resettlement cases—and lives—are on hold. Ironically, the U.S. has barred them because they supported groups that oppose Burma’s military regime, whose brutal record of human rights abuses has been recognized by our government.

Lucresia hoped to reunite with her family, but she died crossing the border trying to reach her husband in the States. Blanca hopes to come out of the shadows. The undocumented mother of two has worked as a janitor and paid taxes in the United States for 15 years. Theirs are among the fractured families and unprotected workers longing for comprehensive immigration reform.

Giving voice to these hopes, LIRS staff, board, affiliates, partners, ambassadors, volunteers and other supporters have worked tirelessly on issues affecting the vulnerable people we serve. Following is a synopsis of our important advocacy efforts and accomplishments:
The LIRS board of directors traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to witness firsthand the impact of our country’s immigration policies on economic migration. They visited several church ministries and immigrant and youth shelters, and participated in a devotion memorializing migrants who have lost their lives in pursuit of family, work and freedom.

We initiated meetings with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the White House Policy Office, numerous congressional offices and offices of House Refugee Caucus members, giving LIRS staff and board members, former refugees, ambassadors, and Lutheran bishops, pastors and laypersons the opportunity to speak up for newcomers.

LIRS participated in and coordinated press conferences that brought to light the issues of unaccompanied children, immigration detention, refugee resettlement, asylum seekers and victims of torture.

The LIRS Action Network generated 13 action alerts, encouraging constituents to contact elected officials on various issues that affect those we serve.

LIRS staff, ambassadors and volunteers participated in two phonathons, mobilizing national support for comprehensive immigration reform.

Over the past several months LIRS staff experts networked and strategized with colleagues across the country at numerous conferences, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association Annual Conference, Torture Treatment Consortium Meeting, Ecumenical Advocacy Days and 29th National Legal Conference on Immigration and Refugee Policy.

LIRS played an important role in organizing participation in two immigration rallies in our nation’s capital, presenting a Lutheran voice at each. Two Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bishops—Paul Stumme-Diers of the Greater Milwaukee Synod and Theodore Schneider of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod—took the podium at the rallies.

We cultivated our relationships with the staff of both the Geneva headquarters and the Washington, D.C., field office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. We remained committed to our work on the Refugee Council USA, Detention Watch Network, and Asylum Working Group.

Our Washington, D.C., staff held meetings with the new Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Emilio Gonzalez and staff from the Department of Homeland Security, including the Office of Policy’s Special Advisor for Refugee and Asylum Affairs Igor Timofeyev, to introduce LIRS’s principles and positions on comprehensive immigration reform and to discuss the “material support” provisions of the REAL ID and USA Patriot Acts.

LIRS leaders met with Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey, chief of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and her staff to advocate for refugee and asylee victims of the war on terror and for vital funding to maintain our affiliates’ capacity to rescue refugees.

In response, officials from the Department of State decided that “material support” provisions would not apply to a large group of Karen Burmese refugees in the Tham Hin Camp in Thailand. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued an order allowing resettlement processing for these refugees. Empowered by your support, House and Senate sponsors today are preparing thoughtful amendments in hopes of achieving a broader legislative fix to this impending refugee crisis.

LIRS staff members are currently working with the International Catholic Migration Commission to research and create a proposal for an overseas processing unit in Nepal to help screen and resettle Bhutanese and Tibetan refugees.

On comprehensive reform, the House passed enforcement-only legislation in December. With steady pressure, the Senate passed legislation that was still flawed, but much better than the House version. It would greatly help millions of people, but would still significantly impact basic rights and protections for certain immigrants.

We continue to participate in congressional hearings on legislation and appropriations and to advocate for the most vulnerable through meetings, presentations, sign-on letters and participation in national events. We educate and constantly learn from our networks and constituents so that our advocacy together can be an effective tool for change. We appreciate our supporters who tirelessly represent and partner with LIRS and those we serve, and we trust that you will continue to raise up voices of hope in these changing and challenging times.