Contact Congress--Week 78--Letter Writing Campaign

    Targeting:  Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

   Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization.  Currently, Americans in same-gender relationships with foreign partners have no right to sponsor those partners for legal residency in the US.  Each week we write to a list of representatives in Congress or the Senate to ask them to support equal immigration rights for Same-Sex Binational couples and to become a cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and to support an inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform that includes LGBT Families
This is week 78 of Out4Immigration’s weekly letter writing campaign.
   Last week, in the wake of the news that Senator Bob Menendez plans to introduce a CIR bill in the near future, we wrote to the four members of the Senate Judiciary who have not signed on as cosponsors.  This week, we are contacting four additional Democratic Senators who have not yet signed on to the Uniting America Families Act as co-sponsors.
   While we have written to all of these Senators before, it is now especially important to remind them not only of the need to keep the UAFA in any CIR legislation, but of the fact that we’ve seen a combined 11 new co-sponsors from the House and Senate, just in the past couple of weeks.  At present, the UAFA has more cosponsors than ever.  We are requesting the co-sponsorship of these Senators, and appealing to them to show leadership in doing the right thing by their LGBT constituents and their families, as these recent co-sponsors have done.
   We encourage you to take part in this campaign by using one of four options:

(1) The easiest one.   By clicking through and adding your name to this page, you will send ALL FOUR of the letters AT ONCE.  You can also provide the link to your friends and family to take action too!;
(2) Contact the 4 senators here with your own letter, your own story; or
(3) Creating a booklet telling your story. See http://tinyurl.com/o4i-toolkit1 for more info on this option.
(4) Check out other actions on our action page and sign the other week's action too to urge the other members of congress to sponsor and support the passage of Uniting American Families Act.

Additionally, don’t hesitate to call our recent cosponsors and thank them for their support.  Let’s hit our target of 500 signers this week.  Please share this widely, and thank you for taking action!!!

Petition Text-

Please sign on as a cosponsor to The Uniting American Families Act (S424)

Dear Senator,

I am writing to you to respectfully ask for your support by becoming a
co-sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA; HR 1024; S 424)
sponsored in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler and in the Senate by
Sen. Patrick Leahy.

I am writing on behalf of a group called Out4Immigration, and I either know someone who is, or am myself directly affected by, the current immigration policies in this country that deny gay and lesbian Americans in same-sex binational relationships the right to sponsor their permanent partners to live with them in the United States.

It has now been over a decade since UAFA was first introduced, and we have appealed to you before in our letter-writing campaign. Small though our numbers might seem, we represent many more people who have either had to leave the country, are tenuously managing their lives from visa to visa, or are living in America in great uncertainty with undocumented partners. This situation is not good for anyone, not the individuals directly affected, their families, the communities they live in, or our country as a whole.

We applaud the Senate’s draft for Comprehensive Immigration Reform unveiled this spring, which includes the language of UAFA. As you know, Senator Menendez now plans to introduce a CIR bill in the near future. At this time, we ask you to stand up and do the right thing by your LGBT constituents and their families, not only by supporting UAFA, but also by co-sponsoring it. We currently have more cosponsors than ever before (25 in the Senate, and 134 in the House), with 11 new cosponsors just in the last couple of weeks. You are a respected member of the Senate, and we are confident that your co-sponsorship, will inspire others in the Senate to follow your leadership.

Our country faces many pressing issues, and is divided along many fronts. Standing up for the rights of all Americans to live in their country with the person they love takes real courage. Citizens are suffering great duress under the current broken immigration system that often forces individuals to choose between the person they love and their country. We’re sure you will agree no one should have to make such a choice. Please reconsider the importance of sponsoring this bill.

[Your name]

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