This Saturday, we stood arm and arm with over 20,000 of you in San Francisco and in solidarity with tens-of-thousands of you across the country to say: families belong together—and free.
We heard courageous testimonies from indigenous and immigrant parents and children forcefully separated from each other by U.S. policy. We listened to painful accounts of the lasting trauma that this cruel history has caused.
Powerful speeches connected our present immigrant and refugee crisis to deep rooted institutionalized evils — to a history of U.S. imperialism that has destabilized foreign political systems and fractured economies; and to long-standing racism pervading our zero-humanity immigration system. We were reminded that as long as our laws make migration a crime, migrants can be prosecuted, jailed, and separated from their children at the whims of the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security. And so we echo our Town Hall Summer partner Oscar Chacón’s call: the decriminalization of migration must be the North Star guiding our immigration reform efforts.
“If one is really serious about radical solutions to the constant attacks against immigrant and refugee communities, there are two things we must do: 1. Reject head on the dehumanizing and demonizing narrative about today’s immigrants. Let’s begin by categorically affirming that migration is great, and that immigrants are a blessing for the country and the world. And 2, Let’s propose the abolishment of the 1996 Immigration Law and all it represents.” Oscar Chacón
Now, let’s use the power of our consumer voices to cut off the corporate money behind Trump’s unconscionable immigration policies. Tell Wells Fargo: STOP financing CoreCivic and GEO Group, private prison corporations that are profiting off the pain and separation of families.
Private prison companies hold contracts to operate hundreds of prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers across the country — facilities being used to incarcerate and separate families. Two private prison industry leaders, CoreCivic and GEO Group, depend on debt financing from banks like yours to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. Wells Fargo has played a leading role in financing these debts. In doing so, Wells Fargo is complicit in and profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration.
Tell Timothy Sloan, the CEO of Wells Fargo: STOP financing pain for corporate gain!
Me must use our voices, our votes, and the power of our pocketbooks to fight against human rights abuses in the false name of national security. Our democracy and our futures depend on it.
We will continue this important conversation about our immigration crisis and the opportunities we have to move forward in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections at our next Town Hall Summer event in Fresno on Saturday, July 21 from 11a.m. to 3p.m. Will you join us?
