What you can do to promote greater solidarity with migrants!
Provided by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Catholic Social Action Office
1. Support development efforts in other countries.
Parish twinning, Catholic Relief Services and other ministries organized by your local church are great opportunities to help poor and vulnerable populations in other countries find opportunities in their homeland, so they won’t need to migrate to secure their lives and dignities. To learn more, contact:
· Your own parish and find out what ministries it already has and how you can get involved;
· Archdiocesan Mission Office about parish twinning: http://www.catholiccincinnati.org/ministries-offices/mission-office/parish-twinning/
· Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ overseas humanitarian and development organization: www.crs.org.
2. Help migrants integrate into our parishes and communities.
The Church calls us to embrace migrants as our own countrymen and women. The Archdiocesan Hispanic Ministry Office can help.
3. Urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Call your elected representatives and encourage them to fix out broken immigration system. Ask them for a reform that:
• Provides a path to citizenship for undocumented persons in the country;
• Preserves family unity as a corner-stone of our immigration system;
• Provides legal paths for low-skilled immigrant workers to come and work in the United States;
• Restores due process protections to our immigration enforcement policies and does not detain immigrant families, especially those with children, in substandard detention facilities;
• Addresses the root causes (push factors) of migration, such as persecution and economic disparity.
Contacts
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown:
(202) 224-2315
U.S. Senator Rob Portman:
(202) 224-3353
U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot:
(202) 225-2216
U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson:
(202) 225-6205
U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup:
(202) 225-3164
4. Urge Administration to keep families out of long-term detention facilities.
After cancelling its child separation practices, the Administration’s “zero tolerance policy” is now resulting in costly, long-term detentions for entire families. To do this, the Administration is proposing new rules that would make it possible to detain children longer than the current 20-day limit (established by the “Flores Settlement). Encourage the Administration to not pursue this by submitting your comments to the proposed rule by Nov. 6. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/07/2018-19052/apprehension-processing-care-and-custody-of-alien-minors-and-unaccompanied-alien-children
5. Urge Administration to set refugee levels at 75,000/year.
By September 30, the Administration will seek Congressional input concerning its maximum number of refugee admittances, a process called the Presidential Determination. The Administration will seek input from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Please contact your Senators, and urge them to raise our annual limit for refugees back up to 75,000.
6. Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio – Immigrant-related services
Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio (CCSWO) provides social, emotional, and legal support to immigrants and refugees from all over the world. Consider supporting CCSWO efforts by volunteering with the Immigration Legal Services Department, Refugee Resettlement, and/or Su Casa Hispanic Center. More information on the website: www.ccswoh.org/volunteer. If volunteering time is not an option, we also welcome spiritual and financial support!