Action Alert: Transform the Department of Homeland Security and provide relief to immigrant families! 

Urge our Representatives to strengthen oversight of DHS in its FY2021 Appropriations bill

The Department of Homeland Security includes the agencies that enforce immigration and customs laws, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and provide services for immigrants’ legal residence and citizenship, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  UUSJ encourages that these immigration-related agencies, which have aggressively enforced anti-immigrant policies, placed the lives of asylum-seekers at risk, and spent millions on an ineffective border wall, be strictly controlled.

We must urge our Representatives now to set limits on both funding and policy for DHS enforcement agencies for the Fiscal Year 2021, which begins October 1.  The only leverage that Congress has at this point is appropriations to run the agency.

 

Description of the issue

The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee introduced to the full House a bill (H.R. 7669) covering appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for FY2021. It was originally, in July, part of an omnibus bill including six other federal departments, but the DHS component was separated out and not approved by the full House. Concerns exist about ICE/CBP mismanagement, re-prioritizing contrary to enacted legislation and the non-transparency for which DHS has become known.

UUSJ supports all the provisions strengthening oversight currently included in HR7669. These would, inter alia: (i) prohibit funds beyond the minimum appropriated to be used for constructing border barriers, (ii) eliminate most reprogramming authority, (iii) stop ICE from deporting US residents who are willing to accept custody of unaccompanied minors, (iv) ensure Members of Congress can have access to detention facilities, (v) prohibit obstruction of migrant access to legal counsel and (vi) ensure migrants are advised of their rights when held in CBP custody. The current proposed bill also reduces the FY funding for ICE and CBP below FY2020 enacted levels.

The US House of Representatives will either take up DHS appropriations before the end of September or pass a Continuing Resolution to maintain current funding levels until after the elections. In either case, UUSJ recommends you encourage your Congressperson to pass funding for DHS now that strengthens Congressional oversight of this agency as much as possible. Just passing a Continuing Resolution now will allow sustained suffering and uncertainty for thousands of immigrants and asylum-seekers.

 

Why it’s important

DHS has become what some call a “rogue” agency, introducing inhumane policies and practices that ignore US commitments under national and international law to provide asylum-seekers due process, not to detain minors for more than 20 days, and to provide adequate conditions for those in detention.  

Detainees have died in DHS custody, including of COVID-19, and tens of thousands of asylum-seekers have been returned to Mexico and refused due process consideration of their claims on any reasonable schedule. Courts have determined that children being held too long by ICE with their family members must be released but the deadline for that has passed and children are still being held.  Thousands of human beings are suffering physically and psychologically from their treatment by DHS enforcement agencies.  There are alternatives to detention that are far more cost-effective, but DHS will not use them. DHS has recently started to ignore information requests from Congressional committees responsible for its oversight.  The only leverage that Congress has at this point is over appropriations to run the agency.  This is where we need to focus our support for constraints and limitations that will begin to transform DHS.

 

Suggested Talking Points

[It is most effective use your own examples, tell your story, and/or draw on some of these suggested points]

• The House of Representatives should pass an FY 2021 DHS appropriations bill with strong oversight provisions in September.  Given flagrant mismanagement by DHS, just passing a Continuing Resolution now will allow sustained suffering and uncertainty for thousands of immigrants and asylum-seekers. 
• DHS has shown by its recent actions that Congress needs stronger oversight, more transparency, and better responsiveness to correct identified abuses. The FY 2021 Appropriations bill for DHS can and should include provisions that achieve this. 
• Expensive and elaborate fences are not appropriate border barriers. Better technology exists that is less costly, does not cause environmental damage nor intrude on private and tribal lands. 
• The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration agencies need to be transformed into reputable non-politicized organizations that efficiently, professionally, and humanely implement reasonable immigration and customs policies.  ICE and CBP should stop delaying access to asylum-consideration, stop detaining people for migration-related offenses, use effective community-based alternatives to detention, and stop separating children from their families.  

 

Option 1: Complete the online form (click HERE) to send a message to your Congressperson. Personalize the message.   By filling out the form, your message will be automatically sent to your Representative. 

Option 2: Sample Phone Message – Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard:  (202) 224-3121 and you will be connected to your Representative.

 

Sample Message (Please use your own words)

I’m very concerned about how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) treats immigrants and asylum-seekers. I feel called by my faith, principles, and values as a Unitarian Universalist and supporter of the Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice to urge the full House to approve a FY2021 appropriations bill for DHS which limits funding for ICE and CBP.

Any bill should include strong provisions to discourage unnecessary reprogramming of funds away from services, such as moving funds to enforcement, family separation, and border wall construction.

DHS should stay within parameters initially funded by Congress, and which encourages humane treatment in detention centers, access of migrants to legal counsel, and access of Congressional staff to facilities.

I care deeply about these issues. We should not be a country that persecutes people legitimately seeking asylum and other legal pathways to residency and citizenship.