Call Your Senators -- Immigrants Are Not Terrorists, Militarization Is Not the Answer

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ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
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Call your Senator today to tell him/her not to sign on to an anti-immigrant,
pro-militarization agenda!

For nearly five years the Bush administration has claimed the only way to make our
country safe from terrorism is to wage wars abroad and expand Presidential power at
the expense of rights at home.

Now President Bush wants us to believe that our security depends on militarizing the
U.S. border. Pandering to his right-wing base, on May 15th President Bush proposed
sending 6,000 National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to keep undocumented
immigrants out of the U.S.

Guard soldiers are trained to deal with natural disasters. The Bush Administration
has deployed to Iraq thousands of National Guardsmen who never expected to be sent
to war. Now the Bush Administration wants to impose a military solution on a
political and economic issue. They are trying to turn the Guard into a law
enforcement agency.

But undocumented immigrants are not "criminals," "invaders," or "terrorists," as
Minutemen and Republican officials argue. And we are not under attack.

Undocumented immigrants are mothers and fathers making tough choices about how to
support their families under difficult conditions. They are being driven out of
their countries largely by war and unemployment caused by unfair globalization
policies -- policies often pushed by our government.

UFPJ believes Guard troops should be brought home from Iraq immediately, but not to
be deployed along the U.S-Mexico border. Doing so would likely lead to increased
deaths of border crossers and violations of border communities' civil rights. For
more background information on this issue and on why UFPJ firmly stands behind
undocumented immigrants, please click here:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3273.

Some pundits have claimed that Bush's proposals straddle a middle ground between
far-right, enforcement-only and humanitarian approaches to immigration. The New York
Times' assessment was far more accurate: "Mr. Bush swiveled [Monday] night in the
direction of those who see immigration, with delusional clarity, as entirely a
problem of barricades and bad guys."

The Senate immigration bill is currently loaded with hurdles designed to make it
extremely difficult for many of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
to achieve legal status and citizenship. Its guest worker program would leave
immigrant workers vulnerable to exploitation and deny them a path to citizenship.
Provisions like restricting due process to those accused of violating immigration
laws would further erode the human and civil rights of immigrants.

Republicans are pushing to add additional punitive enforcement provisions and
further restrict access to citizenship, with few Democratic Senators standing up to
them. Yesterday by a vote of 83 to 16, the Senate voted to construct a 370-mile wall
on the Southwest border. If Bush's proposals are incorporated, too, it will be a
major victory for the far right.

United for Peace and Justice urges supporters of peace and justice to reject the
fortress mentality and stand with undocumented immigrants in this time of need.

CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY
Add your voice to the chorus demanding immigration policies that are fair and just,
and that respect the rights and dignity of all immigrants and other members of our
society.

Capitol Switchboard: (888) 355-3588 (toll-free) or (202) 334-3121

Please call both of your Senators TODAY. You can ask for the Senator by name at the
numbers above. If you don't know his/her name or the line is busy, see:
http://www.senate.gov and click on "Senators" at the top left to find your senators'
names and their offices' direct phone numbers.

Tell your Senators to remove the provisions from Senate Bill 2611 (the
Hagel-Martinez-Specter compromise) that criminalize undocumented immigrants and
restrict their rights and ability to gain citizenship. Tell them to reject the Bush
administration's proposals for sending National Guard troops to the border and new
punitive enforcement provisions.

Instead of undermining civil rights and civil liberties, our elected officials
should support real immigration reform that:

* increases the number of available family visas
* enables all undocumented immigrants within the U.S. to legalize their status
and gain a path to citizenship
* provides due process, including restoration of access to the courts and
meaningful judicial review for immigrants
* stops mandatory deportations and indefinite detentions
* allows undocumented immigrants and their families to remain together in this
country
* protects the rights of both immigrant and native-born workers

If efforts to radically amend Senate Bill 2611 in a progressive, pro-immigrant
direction do not succeed, it must be defeated.

For more background information on the Senate immigration bill and Bush's proposals,
please visit our website: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3273.

============================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email