We’re entering a critical time now in the immigration reform movement.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin considering amendments relating to employment-based visas in the proposed Senate immigration reform bill.
Now is the time that we reach out to our elected officials to let them know that we want fair immigration reform. We are asking all our supporters to contact the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whether by phone or through social media, to make your voice heard.
Please continue to reach out to the committee members all day Tuesday, as staff will be reporting on the number of calls for and against each amendment to the Senators.
Below we have sample tweets that can be sent via Twitter as well as scripts you can use if you choose to call. If you get an answering machine, please leave a message.
Thank you for your help in making immigration reform a reality!
CALL
Please call 1-866-940-2439 to speak with the office of a Judiciary Committee member.
Sample Script
“As a person of faith, I urge the Senator to SUPPORT all immigration amendments being offered by Senator Blumenthal, and Schumer #5, which would protect immigrant workers.
I also urge you to OPPOSE amendments that would hurt immigrant workers, specifically Sessions #3, Lee #19, Hatch #19 and #20, and Grassley #73 and #74.”
SUPPORT
Senator Blumenthal’s Amendments #7, #13, #17, and #18
These amendments would ban hiring discrimination based on national origin or citizenship status, provide whistleblower protections for temporary workers, ensure workers have the right to a pay stub so that they can prove employment status for the pathway to citizenship, and codify current ICE policy restricting immigration enforcement actions where labor violations have been cited, so a threat of raids won’t keep workers from reporting abuse.
Senator Schumer’s Amendment #5
This amendment would help workers change employers without the risk of losing their visa, and would provide an electronic monitoring system for the program.
OPPOSE
Senator Sessions’ Amendment #3
This amendment would prevent any guest workers from entering the U.S. if the unemployment rate is 5 percent or more. This is such a low threshold that it could effectively keep all guest workers from immigrating to the U.S.
Senator Lee’s Amendment #19 and Senator Hatch’s Amendments #19 and #20
These amendments would exempt employers of temporary workers from complying with labor and employment laws, thus allowing them to violate the rights of temporary workers; and would limit the ability of individuals and groups from submitting a complaint about worker’s mistreatment on behalf of a mistreated temporary worker.
Senator Grassley’s Amendments #73 & #74
These amendments would restrict temporary workers (new “W” visa recipients) from renewing their visas, and would require all temporary workers to provide proof that they can and are paying for their own health insurance, which could effectively prevent almost all temporary workers from entering the U.S.
We know that our senators regularly monitor the tweets directed to them, so it’s important that we let them know through social media and Twitter that we support fair immigration reform
Below is a list of the usernames for the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Please do your part in supporting the immigration reform effort and tweet your support for fair reform directly to them now and in the days to come. Also use the hashtags #immigrationreform, #cir, and#CIRmarkup to join the discussion with other users in support of immigration reform.
Democrats
@SenatorLeahy Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, D-Vermont
@SenFeinstein Dianne Feinstein, D-California
@ChuckSchumer Chuck Schumer, D-New York
@SenatorDurbin Dick Durbin, D-Illinois
@amyklobuchar Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota
@SenWhitehouse Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island
@alfranken Al Franken, D-Minnesota
@ChrisCoons Christopher A. Coons, D-Delaware
@SenBlumenthal Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut
@maziehirono Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii
Republicans
@ChuckGrassley Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member, R-Iowa
@OrrinHatch Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah
@SenatorSessions Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama
@LindseyGrahamSC Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
@JohnCornyn John Cornyn, R-Texas
@SenMikeLee Michael S. Lee, R-Utah
@tedcruz Ted Cruz, R-Texas
@JeffFlake Jeff Flake, R-Arizona
