Migrant Bus Advocacy Scripts
Note: These scripts can be used to contact your legislators through postcards, letters, emails, phone calls, social media posts, and more. You can also find these scripts here.
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
- https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
- https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Immediate Work Authorization
Dear ,
Immediate grants of work authorization at the border are imperative now. The numbers of people seeking to enter our country, although large, is not unsustainable if they are given immediate permission to work. Without this, immigrants with the legal right to be in our country have no legal ability to support themselves – they cannot work and they are not eligible for public benefits. This is what is overwhelming cities and towns at the border and in Northern cities that have recently welcomed migrants who were bused to them. Our federal policy, which requires original documents and paper filings and months and months and months of waiting for federal agency action is the problem – both for migrants who have a right to be here and for our own citizens who are facing staffing crises in most industries and who are desperate for people to hire. We are hurting asylum seekers, families, and cities and towns across America by our own inability to provide a simple work authorization stamp immediately upon paroling anyone into the country.
Title 42
Dear ,
Title 42 is a public health regulation which no longer makes sense to uphold and doing so, when the public health reasons for invoking it are no longer valid, causes us to violate US and international law every single day that it remains in effect. The Supreme Court’s majority explicitly stated that the Biden administration had the authority to move forward regarding the withdrawal of Title 42 despite its over-ruling of the lower court’s Order to withdraw it. There is no longer any excuse for keeping it in place.
As for concerns about numbers that will enter or seek entry after Title 42 is lifted, the issue is not numbers but lack of work authorization. We have been experiencing a staffing crisis in almost every industry for more than a year and those amassed at the border or enroute to the border seeking entry to the United States want nothing other than to work and support their families. Instead, though many have been legally permitted to enter the country, many are wrongfully expelled and those that were permitted to enter are not legally permitted to support themselves or their families for close to a year after entering. Our government takes people in, renders them completely dependent on charity for support and then screams that our charity is insufficient to support the numbers that are permitted to be let in. This is a problem caused by our government, not by the numbers of people seeking entry. And it is a problem that is easily remedied – provide immediate work authorization papers or stamps at the border and there will be little need to depend on charitable resources such as homeless shelters, food banks, etc.
The administration must stop violating our own constitution and international law immediately and must withdraw Title 42. Such an action should be done in conjunction with the award of immediate work authorization for those eligible to enter the country.
Financial Sponsorship
Dear ,
Considering financial sponsorship as a viable entry pathway, while simultaneously preventing people from seeking asylum is a violation of our constitution and international law. Financial sponsors are not vetted, other than for income and assets. Nor are their promises enforced. Many so-called sponsorships of Ukrainians have already fallen apart leaving newcomer Ukrainians facing homelessness or worse, victimization from their traffickers who pretended to be sponsors.
Persons fleeing persecution have to leave their country immediately. They have no time or ability to look for wealthy sponsors nor are they able, in most cases, to wait in their persecuting country of origin while completing paperwork to finalize the sponsorship. Pretending that sponsorship is a realistic escape route for people who are fleeing persecution is like pretending that closing your eyes will keep you safe from harm.
The asylum system must be financially supported so that it can handle increasing claims and immediate work authorization at the border must be granted to ensure that legally authorized entrants are not rendered completely dependent and vulnerable while waiting for their asylum claims to go through. In addition, legal pathways for those who are suffering violence and starvation due to the political instability of their countries must be created.
