In recent days, Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) released details of an emerging bipartisan proposal to grant a pathway to citizenship for roughly two million Dreamers, undocumented individuals brought to the United States as children. Though long-assimilated into American society, Dreamers are denied the dignity of citizenship and barred from assuming a full and inclusive seat at the table. Dreamers, as well as immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, immigrant farm workers and essential workers, and so many others, contribute billions of dollars in taxes each year, donate to charitable community organizations, volunteer for military service, teach our children, care for our loved ones, and provide other essential services to millions of people across the country, and yet they do not share in the same fundamental protections and opportunities as do their documented neighbors.
This injustice should not be allowed to continue and we call on our elected officials to take bold action this year to end this humanitarian crisis.
As Jews, we know all too well what it feels like to be strangers in a foreign land. And even closer to home, Eddie Chavez Calderon, Uri L’Tzedek’s Campaign Director and a former Dreamer and undocumented migrant himself, has endured the uncertainty of what tomorrow may bring. Creating a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and young immigrants would radically change millions of people’s lives by allowing them to live without fear of deportation. We need to awaken the reality of citizenship to millions of Dreamers across the country.
More than thirty-six times in the Torah are we, as Jews, reminded of the commandment of treating the stranger with compassion and with dignity. The organizations and individuals on this letter and the American Jewish community more broadly have long been vigorous advocates for immigrant justice and we demand to see that the status quo of this country begin to revolve on this fundamental Torah truth.
Alongside our urgent call for a pathway to citizenship, we have significant concerns about other provisions of this nascent compromise which would detrimentally impact on the ability for people to exercise their legal right to seek asylum in the United States. The provisions of the bill are thought to include the extension of Title 42 (a policy which must instead be immediately ended), the expansion of immigrant detention, and the further militarization of border communities that unjustly and unnecessarily pit some immigrants’ rights and protections against those of asylum seekers. Congress must instead decouple the passage of pathways to citizenship from provisions that would cause harm to the asylum system and millions of immigrants.
Immigrants are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, and our family. It is long past time that they be welcomed fully into our nation and granted the safety afforded by citizenship.
Signed,
Uri L’Tzedek
National Council of Jewish Women
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
HIAS
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
ALEPH: Alliance For Jewish Renewal
Arizona Jews for Justice
jGirls+ Magazine
Colorado Jews for Justice
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Elluminate
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
The Workers Circle
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
The Kirva Institute
Valley Beit Midrash
Jewish Labor Committee
JCRC/AJC of Detroit
Ameinu
Jewtina & Co.
Union for Reform Judaism
Keshet
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
The Cuba America Jewish Mission
Jewish Community Action
Carolina Jews for Justice
Coastal Roots Farm
Avodah
IKAR
Jewish World Watch
Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami
Temple Hillel B''nai Torah
L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty
Ohr Shalom Synagogue
ALEPH ORDINATION PROGRAM
18Doors
Jewish Collaborative of San Diego
Congregation Rodef Shalom
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Temple Beth Jacob
Shaare Emeth Congregation
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
Kol HaLev
HaMakom Congregation of Santa Fe, NM
Los Alamos Jewish Center
Spirit of the Desert - Ruach Hamidbar
Temple Adat Shalom
Hebrew Union College
Tzedek America
Coastal roots farm
Lunar Collective: weareasianjews.org
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix
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Jewish Emergent Network
Wellesley College Hillel
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OHALAH Tikkun Olam Committee
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Progressive Zionists of California
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Teen JUST-US
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Orange County Jewish Coalition for Refugees
Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg
Ruth Messinger
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