December 21, 2018

The Honorable Paul Ryan                                                                       The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Speaker of the House                                                                              Senate Majority Leader

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi                                                                  The Honorable Charles Schumer    
House Minority Leader                                                                            Senate Minority Leader

Speaker Ryan and Leaders McConnell, Schumer and Pelosi:
 
We see our nation sliding into a dangerous and disorienting period which threatens the fabric of community and the notion that we are all sisters and brothers to one another. In disorienting times such as these, we return to the faith values which root all of our traditions: love, human dignity, compassion and justice.
 
We urge you to take three actions that will help us to find our way back from the demonizing and dehumanizing rhetoric and policies which not only sow fear and anger, but as we have seen over and over, incite acts of violence.
 
1.     Denounce and condemn rhetoric that dehumanizes any part of our human family, including the varieties of ethno-nationalist, racist and xenophobic speech which have moved from the fringe to the center of our public life.  These words matter and your condemnation or silence matters even more.
 
2.     Rein in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) by reducing their funding.  This will slow the socially and environmentally  destructive efforts to militarize our southern border regions, and will hold accountable the immigration enforcement agencies that are traumatizing families and communities across our country.  The prospect of granting the agencies responsible for the shameful separation of families at the border this summer additional funds is unconscionable.  Instead, we ask that you cut their funding to ensure that there will be a reduction in the number of immigration agents, a reduction in the number of beds available to detain undocumented immigrants, and no new funds for the border wall.
 
3.     Make public comments against the proposed change in public policy regarding “public charge,” which is yet another step in the process of vilifying and punishing immigrants, regardless of their status.      
 
We also continue to be deeply troubled by Congress’ lack of action to address the fear and anxiety of our Dreamer and TPS communities.  We have not forgotten their anguish and we continue to call on you to respond with a compassionate and loving legislative response.
 
We remain rooted in the spiritual wellsprings of our various faiths, which call us to move beyond ourselves into an awareness that we are all – regardless of our country of origin, our faith, our race or ethnicity – one interconnected and interdependent family.

We feel a responsibility to call our nation back to a shared vision of community and solidarity, even as we mourn the impact of the discord, division and violence we see around us.  It is not too late to reverse the troubling course we find ourselves on. With these steps, you and the Congress can help set our nation on that path.

Respectfully,