MAKE CALLS: Defund Hate – WA Call-in Day

We are asking everyone to call Senator Murray as well as the person in your congressional district.

In the 2018 proposed budget, Trump has requested a lot more money to fund the detention and deportation of immigrants, including:

• funds to hire new ICE and Border Patrol agents to terrorize our communities,
• more local police to focus on immigration enforcement,
• a massive increase in immigrant detention—the equivalent of locking up the entire population of New Orleans over the course of a year,
• $1.6 billion to build a southern border wall, and
• further border militarization including aircraft and surveillance technology

Washington is home to one of the biggest detention centers in the country (Northwest Detention Center) and a border state. For these reasons, the increases to immigration enforcement funding that Trump’s administration is pushing for will undoubetedly harm immigrants in our communities. The ending of DACA and the recent national “Operation Safe City” through which ICE detained more than 450 people, including 27 of our Washington residents, are yet more examples of why we must oppose any increase in immigration enforcement funding.

We are asking you to join us on 11/8 on a call-in day, to call our representaties and let them know that we oppose funding for the detention and deportation machine. We must let our representatives know that we do not want our taxpayer dollars going towards an inhumane system that separates families.

Here is a sample call-script:

“Hello, my name is [ ] and I’m a constituent of [state/congressional district]. I’m calling as part of the Defund Hate campaign. We’re calling on [Senator/MoC] to oppose funding for the detention and deportation machine. This funding fuels agencies like ICE and CBP which have a long track record of lying, hiding information and retaliating against those who speak out against them. We need to use public funds for needed resources like healthcare, education and housing, instead of funding this inhumane immigration enforcement system. We demand that [Senator/MoC] publicly call for significant cuts to ICE and CBP and be a voice within [chamber, caucus, with leadership] to Defund Hate and oppose funding for the detention and deportation machine.”

Find out more about the Defund Hate campaign here: http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/DWN%20%23DefundHate%20Explainer.pdf.