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IIC Letter to the WH Re: Legalization of Essential Workers

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IIC Letter to the WH Re: Legalization of Essential Workers May 6, 2021 The Hon. President Joe Biden The Hon. Vice President Kamala Harris President of the United States Vice President of the United States 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500 Washington, DC 20500 The Hon. Nancy Pelosi The Hon. Chuck Schumer Speaker, Majority Leader, House of Representatives Senate Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515 The Hon. Kevin McCarthy, The Hon. Mitch McConnell Minority Leader, Minority Leader, House of Representatives Senate Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515 Dear President Biden, Vice President Harris, House and Senate Leadership, As 842 faith leaders and 148 faith organizations of diverse faith traditions, we come to you with urgency, knowing that the COVID-19 crisis has profoundly impacted already marginalized groups in society including Black, Latino, indigenous, immigrant, and refugee communities. We respectfully request that you include a pathway to citizenship for essential immigrant workers, farmworkers, people with DACA, TPS, and DED, and their families in the upcoming recovery packages you have prioritized through reconciliation. An inclusive legislative proposal on immigration relief, which recognizes the dignity of all, is long overdue. Our immigrant family members and neighbors who are integral parts of this nation deserve the protection and opportunity of a clear path to citizenship. Any package should recall the worth and dignity conferred by our Creator, and not exclude or discriminate against anyone based on interactions with our nation’s racist criminal justice system. Instead, we’re hopeful that a package maximizes eligibility for relief, stabilizing the workforce, ensuring that families stay together, and our communities can thrive. Essential workers have faced the most significant risks amid the pandemic. And we know that countless immigrant members of our congregations, places of worship, and communities have worked throughout the pandemic as essential workers, providing the basic goods and critical services which have helped us all make it through this terrible season. And yet, we as a people have treated our immigrant "essential" workers as expendable, as exploitable - extracting their labor while disregarding their humanity. We have excluded them from full citizenship and denied them the full fruits of their contributions to our economy and community life. Six million immigrant workers in our communities are at the frontlines of keeping us all healthy and fed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While making up only 17% of about 156 million working people, immigrants are disproportionately represented in COVID-19 front line occupations and essential industries, including being childcare workers, healthcare workers, custodial staff, school employees, and farmworkers, to name a few examples. Essential immigrant workers have been, and will continue to be, key to our communities' health and prosperity during the healing of our nation from the pandemic and looking at the future. Immigrants, including 131,000 people with TPS and 200,000 people with DACA, are serving on the frontlines—despite their families and communities receiving little or no relief themselves. One important step we can take in the coming weeks is to recognize undocumented immigrants who are essential workers and their families for the gifts they bring into their communities, their resiliency, and their contributions to our society with a roadmap to citizenship. We must not exclude some people from relief, keep them in limbo, or punish them twice for having prior contact with a racist and biased criminal legal system. After years of attacks on our communities, the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and a year at the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden Administration and Congress can and must secure a pathway to citizenship for essential immigrant workers, farmworkers, people with DACA, TPS, and DED, and their families immediately as part of any recovery package being passed in reconciliation. In doing so, we can take a step toward the state of "right relationship" we seek with our Creator, our neighbors, and all of creation. Sincerely, Faith Organizations Adorers of the Blood of Christ Adrian Dominican Sister African American Ministers In Action Agregee American Friends Service Committee Archdiocese of Dubuque Social Justice Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park Beatitudes Church Blessed Trinity Catholic Community C.P.P.S. Caminando Juntos - Presentation Sisters Hispanic Ministry Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church Casa de Luz Church Sacramento Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ Centro Comunitario CEUS Centro Corazon de Maria Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice Church of the Little Flower Church Women United in New York State Church World Service Congregation Action Network Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Creekside Community Church Daughters of Charity-Province of St. Louise Daughters of Wisdom US Province Denver Presbytery Mission & Ministry Work Group Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries Disciples Women Divino Salvador Presbyterian Worshiping Community Dominican Family Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters of Adrian Dominican Sisters of Hope Dominican Sisters of Houston Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose Dominican Sisters of San Rafael Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters of Sparkill Earth Justice Ministries Elaine Dombi ELCA Pastor Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Faith Commons Faith in Public Life Fellowship Southwest FIND of Faith Action International House Franciscan Action Network Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart Friends Committee on National Legislation Glenmary Home Missioners Global Faith and Justice Project Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart Guadalupe Presbyterian Church detention ministry Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, USA-JPIC Holy Trinity Catholic Church Social Justice Team IHM Sisters Immaculate Conception Priory Immaculate Heart Community Commission on Justice for Immigrants and Refugees Immigrant Justice Ministry of Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church Jemez Peacemakers Jesuit Social Research Institute Journey With Migrants Mission Partnership from Denver Presbytery JPIC Just Neighbors Justice Committee of The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Albany Province Justice Committee Kim Worthington Leadership Conference of Women Religious Leadership Team of the Felician Sisters of North America Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church LUCHA Ministries, Inc. Mary's Pence Maryknoll Lay Missioners Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns Matthew 25 The Gorge Meriden Congregational Church, UCC Midvale Community Lutheran Church Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity Montview Blvd. Presbyterian Church Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd National Council of Jewish Women National Filipino Presbyterian Council National Religious Campaign Against Torture Neighbors in Support of Immigrants NETWORK Lobby For Catholic Social Justice New Waverly United Methodist Church New York Justice for Our Neighbors, Inc. NH Conference United Church of Christ Immigrant and Refugee Support Group NH Conference United Church of Christ, Economic Justice Mission Group OSF Pax Christi Pacific Northwest Pax Christi USA Peace and Justice, St Nicholas Church, Evanston Il Pennsylvania Council of Churches Pilgrim United Church of Christ Presbyterian Church (USA) Presentation Sisters Provincial Council Clerics of St. Viator Restoring Connections Roosevelt-Freeport Church of Christ/North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE) School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province School Sisters of Notre Dame Atlantic Midwest Province Second Congregational Church UCC, Bennington, VT Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants (SBI) Sisters of Charity Federation Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Western Province Leadership Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team Sisters of Providence Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA Sisters of St Francis of Assisi Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, New York Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, LA Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, NY Sisters of St. Joseph, Philadelphia Sisters of the Holy Name, US-Ontario Leadership Team Sisters of the Most Precious Blood Sisters of the Presentation, Dubuque, Iowa SNJM Social Justice Coalition of Portland's Central Lutheran Church Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ Spring Hill United Church of Christ Sravasti Abbey SSND Atlantic Midwest JPIC Dept St Michael St Peter's Lutheran Church, Harwich MA St Vincent de Paul Parish St. Cyprian Catholic Church Chair Justice & Peace Ministry St. John’s Episcopal Church Social Action Ministries St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights Temple Menorah The Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Albany Pro The United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society Tzedek Chicago UFPC Union for Reform Judaism Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice
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