Advertisement
Unitarian Universalists who want to advocate for immigrant justice can take part in a massive phone call blitz to demand an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brutality.
As part of an ICE Out! National Week of Action, UUs are creating an unbroken chain of phone calls to key members of Congress every three minutes for forty-straight business hours, according to Side With Love. Due to the high level of participation, the call blitz will continue for a second week, from Monday, February 9 through Friday, February 13, and event organizers are accepting more volunteers.
When it’s done, the campaign will result in a total of nearly 5,000 calls over the course of eighty straight business hours, according to Side With Love.
Congregations or groups interested in signing up to sponsor an hour in the new chain and recruiting twenty callers can do so by filling out an online form.
ICE Out! National Week of Action
UU State Action Networks and Side With Love are partnering with others to challenge “the violent, immoral actions of ICE.”
“In this time of moral crisis, our faith calls us to live our values through courageous and prophetic action,” the ICE Out! Week of Action web page explains.
The first day on February 3 featured an action hour of phone calls petitioning major corporations such as Target and Home Depot to denounce ICE. That action was led by the Minnesota UU Social Justice Alliance.
On Thursday, February 5, the Week of Action offers a new opportunity for UUs (and non-UUs) to get involved: an online gathering led by the Texas UU Justice Ministry, which is coordinating efforts to close Dilley Immigration Processing Center, in Dilley, Texas, south of San Antonio.
Register for the event, which begins at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 6 p.m. MT.
The facility in Dilley is designed to detain families and has been accused of keeping people in inhumane conditions, according to CNN.
The Dilley center is also where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were detained after being taken from Minneapolis, Minnesota, by federal agents. Ramos and his father were released earlier this week at the order of a federal judge who deemed their detention unconstitutional and wrote that immigration agents are “traumatizing children,” according to Mother Jones.
The UU Solidarity Initiative, a national network of UU and UU-adjacent organizations that support immigrant communities, is also kicking off an ongoing series of bimonthly Solidarity Sessions starting on Thursday, February 5.
For the full calendar of upcoming sessions, check the Side With Love events page.