On Father’s Day we made ice cream for my husband, went on a long walk, and then our ten year old son obliged him with a game of catch. And it was good.

Thousands of children did not have the privilege of spending time with their parents yesterday. Thousands of children instead spent this weekend locked in cages along the border of the United States, criminalized and dehumanized by new, cruel policies of the Trump administration because their parents followed US immigration law and requested asylum, or committed a misdemeanor by crossing into the US without a border inspection.

As my family and many of yours celebrated, we also cheered on as families across the US took to the streets for a Father’s Day of Action, in the latest day of immigration related protests.   

Now is the time to stand up against these cruel and intolerable actions of the current administration. Please take a moment today and do one (or more!) of the following:

1. Request your overseas absentee ballot for 2018 and confirm with your Local Elections Office that it will be sent.Here’s how.

2. Call Senate to voice your support of the Keep Families Together Act.

If your Senators are Republicans or Joe Manchin (WV): 
Hello my name is [NAME] and I’m a [STATE] voter, calling to ask that Senator [NAME] support S. 3036, the Keep Families Together Act, to stop the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border. This practice is immoral and unnecessarily harms innocent children. It must be stopped by Congress immediately. Trump makes up scary stories about ‘violent immigrants’, but his own agents are the ones committing unthinkable violence against defenseless children. Whether taken by Border Patrol while crossing the border, torn from their parents after seeking asylum, or snatched from their school by ICE, this crisis is proof that the agencies executing Trump’s family separation policies are not acting in the best interests of children and must be stopped, urgently.
[If leaving a message, include your full voting address if possible.]

If your Senators are other Democrats:
Hello my name is [NAME] and I’m a [STATE] voter, calling to thank Senator [NAME] for his/her support of S. 3036, the Keep Families Together Act, to stop the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border. This practice is immoral and unnecessarily harms innocent children. It must be stopped by Congress immediately.
[If leaving a message, include your full voting address if possible.]

3. Call your Representative to encourage their support as well:

Hello my name is [NAME] and I'm a constituent of the Congress(wo)man. I’m asking Rep. [NAME] to use Congress' oversight authority to stop separating families at the U.S. border. This practice hurts innocent children and should be stopped immediately. I understand that there are multiple immigration bills that may come to a vote very soon in the House. Let me be clear: I do NOT support Goodlatte’s proposed immigration bill, or any immigration bill that does nothing to stop family separation, allows children to be held indefinitely, and holds Dreamers hostage in exchange for Trump’s border wall or increased spending on detention centers and ICE agents. Families belong together and we deserve to see clean legislation to make sure this happens. Thank you for your time and attention.
[If leaving a message, include your full voting address if possible.]

4. Call your Reps and your Senators to oppose DoJ’s decision to stop granting asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence:

Hello my name is [NAME] and I'm a constituent of the Senator/Congress(wo)man. I'm calling to express my strong opposition to the Justice Department's decision to stop granting asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence. It is absolutely unacceptable to send vulnerable individuals in need of protection back into violent circumstances. I ask that [Sen/Congress(wo)man NAME] publicly condemn the Trump administration's unfair and dangerous treatment of these asylum seekers. Thank you for your time and attention.
[If leaving a message, include your full voting address if possible.]

5. Read up on the issues:

• Laura Bush: “It is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place.” (WaPo)
• Charles Blow: “This practice of family separation must end, and Trump and every other politician who was silent about it or worse, endorsed it, must be held to account at the ballot box.” (NYT)
• U.N. rights chief: Migrant family separations "unconscionable" (CBS)
• Separation at the border: children wait in cages at south Texas warehouse (The Guardian)
• All Oversight Committee Democrats Reiterate Call for Gowdy to Investigate Trump Policy of Separating Children at Border. (House Oversight Dems)
• Pelosi: No prospect GOP Congress will end child separations (The Hill)
• What’s in store in the House this week? (Vox)
• Activists, Lawmakers Of Color Denounce Hard-Line GOP Immigration Bill (HuffPo)
  

6. Help us phonebank Americans abroad to get out the vote. It’s the only way we know we can stop this.

(Image: "Luz", by Deb Swansburg, DA Ecuador)