Microsoft got the message about enabling ICE

To this day, the future is uncertain for the 463 children whose parents were deported by ICE without them. Their parents came to the US for the dream of a better life, and many have fled violence in their home country. Now hundreds of parents have been deported back to potential danger with no real hope of reuniting with their children.

So last week, we took the fight to end tech companies’ collaboration with ICE's deportation machine straight to Microsoft’s door.

Together with partners like Color of Change, the Tech Workers Coalition, Fight for the Future, and Coworker, we hosted actions at Microsoft offices in cities across the country to deliver a joint petition with 300,000 signatures from members like you. But that’s not all: a Microsoft employee hand-delivered a USB with the petition—including 500 signatures from Microsoft employees—to CEO Satya Nadella at an annual gathering at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters.

Nadella definitely got the message that Microsoft’s ongoing contract with ICE can’t be swept under the rug and hurts real people. And in case 300,000 signatures didn’t do the trick, we teamed up with Color of Change to crowdsource this amazing mobile billboard that we drove around Microsoft’s headquarters during the protest.

Together with a coalition of groups representing millions of people, we’re showing Microsoft that the voices of the people will speak louder than the $19 million contract Microsoft has with ICE.

Watch and share this video of our day of action on Facebook to help keep the heat on Microsoft!

Not on Facebook? No problem, click here to watch on Youtube.

The pressure is working: Nadella was quick to downplay Microsoft’s contract with ICE, claiming in a statement that it was “not aware” of its services being used to help separate families at the border.

That’s quite a change of tune from earlier this year when the company boasted online that Azure, a Microsoft cloud computing service with deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification, was “mission-critical” to ICE.

It's a matter of life or death for so many migrant families in this moment. Deported parents worry if they will ever see or hold their infants again. They worry about who will take care of their kids if and when they are released from government detention centers. They worry about surviving another day to be able to search and fight for their separated love ones, some too young to speak.

Last week’s day of action was a crucial step in holding tech companies like Microsoft accountable for their complicity in Trump’s war on immigrants. But we will not back down until we take this crucial cog out of ICE’s deportation machine.

- SumOfUs

More information:

Microsoft Employees Question C.E.O. Over Company’s Contract With ICE, New York Times, July 26 2018.

Children jailed with parents!

Yesterday, thanks to public pressure from hundreds of thousands across the country -- including thousands of Courage members like you -- the Trump administration has been forced to shift its inhumane child separation program. Trump's executive order doesn't mean the cruelty stops, it just means families will now be jailed together INDEFINITELY -- with no real solution or response to the thousands of children who have already been separated.

All the while, Congress still plans to use these families as bargaining chips to pass two anti-immigration proposals by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte TODAY! Both of these bills fail to bring separated families back together, and could actually lead to more children living in jails.(1)

• Speaker Ryan's bill doesn't ensure families stay together and allows children to be jailed indefinitely. After adults get out of jail, nothing in this bill actually says Trump can't still keep their kids separated. Parents could even get deported while their kids remain in the U.S., separating them by law permanently. This bill would also override current law to allow ICE to hold kids in immigration jail run by private prison companies indefinitely with their parents.⁴

• Rep. Goodlatte's bill targets black immigrants by eliminating the diversity visa program; drastically cuts family immigration; further militarizes the border; harms low-wage immigrant workers already vulnerable to abuse and exploitation; and wants automatic detention and deportation of anyone who comes in contact with authorities.⁵

Now it's time to turn up the pressure. 

We need to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear: Congress must take meaningful action to stop these awful anti-immigrant bills, and not blow up the immigration system, as the Ryan and Goodlatte proposals would. Can you call your representative, Martha McSally, and tell them to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills? 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills.

Tucson Office: (520) 881-3588

Here's a call script that you can use as guidance when you get on the phone with the representative:

"Hi, my name is __________ and I live in Tucson. I'm calling to ask you to vote NO on the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan, and to vote NO on the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte. These bills do nothing to address the crisis at the border, and they go against American values. Thank you." 

Up until today, immigration agents have snatched over 11,000 children from their parents this year -- even those asking for political asylum after escaping horrible human rights abuses.(2)

Trump and the Republican leadership are still using these children as leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to support two GOP immigration bills by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte up for a vote as early as TODAY. If they pass, it will basically end immigration as we know it -- and will do almost nothing to reunite the children that have been stripped from their parents' arms. 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills. 

- the Courage team

Footnotes:

1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17467624/immigration-bill-congress-2018 

2. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/shelters-undocumented-children-nearing-capacity-trump-immigration-policy/story?id=55882840

3.The House GOP says their new bill bans separating families at the border. That's a lie., Vox, June 15, 2018
4. Ibid
5.  The 4 Worst Parts of the Securing America's Future Act, Center for American Progress, June 7, 2018

More information:

Times article: Children 'Don’t Need Jail.' Immigration Advocates Say President Trump's Executive Order Creates Even More Problems

5 ways Ducey has helped Trump's cruel border policies

In recent weeks there has been a flurry of news coverage on the inhumane cruelty happening along our border. The Trump administration has made it a policy to separate children from parents who are fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking safety in the U.S. Rather than speak out against these atrocities, Governor Doug Ducey has doubled down on the “secure our borders” rhetoric. He’s done nothing to stop the separation of families, instead strongly supporting the administration’s cruel border policies. 

See the Ways Ducey Has Helped Trump

1. Other governors have spoken out against the Trump administration’s policy at the border. Colorado’s governor issued an executive order banning state resources from helping divide families at the border. Governor Ducey has taken the opposite direction and actually sent Arizona National Guard members to the border.
2. Ducey has aligned himself with Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who has defended separating families at the border. In April Ducey toured the border with Nielsen, who claimed there was a “crisis” happening. The governor commended Trump and Nielsen for addressing a surge in border activity. “Rather than letting this grow or build, this administration acted on it immediately,” Ducey said.
3. In May, Ducey had a nice dinner with Trump  to talk and collaborate with him on securing our border. Ducey told Trump that the Southern Arizona border was “wide open and unprotected.” In fact, the Southern Arizona border is heavily militarized.
4. In April, Ducey celebrated and endorsed Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to the border. He said troops were “needed” and “welcomed.” He even wrote an op-ed thanking Trump. 
5. Doug Ducey also showed no compassion to people seeking safety during the refugee crisis. He compared people seeking refuge to terrorists and defended the comparison with paranoid claims that refugees were ISIS operatives trying to establish terrorist networks in Arizona.

How You Can Speak Out

Come to this rally today at 2pm at the State Capitol. More details here.

Can't make the rally? You can also sign this petition!

-Progress Now Arizona

Tell Rep. McSally to help stop family separations

Tens of thousands of Courage Campaign members sent a powerful message to Congress yesterday calling for an end to Trump's viciously cruel family separation policy.

Now it's time to turn up the pressure. The Republican immigration proposals by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte -- which fail to end family separations and could actually lead to more children living in jails -- will be voted on in a matter of days.(1)

We need to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear: Congress must take meaningful action to humanely end family separations, not blow up the immigration system, as the Ryan and Goodlatte proposals would. Can you call your representative, Martha McSally, and tell her to vote no on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills? 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to end family separations at the border.

Here's a call script that you can use as guidance when you get on the phone with the representative:

"Hi, my name is __________ and I live in Tucson. I'm calling to ask you to vote NO on the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan, and to vote NO on the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte. These bills do nothing to stop family separations at the border, and they go against America's welcoming values. Thank you." 

Immigration agents have snatched over 11,000 children from their parents this year -- even those asking for political asylum after escaping horrible human rights abuses.(2)

They even took a breastfeeding child away from her mother.(3) This is inhumane, and it has to stop. But Trump and the Republican leadership are using these children as leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to support two GOP immigration bills by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte up for a vote THIS WEEK. If they pass, it will basically end immigration as we know it -- and will do almost nothing to stop children from being separated from their families.

These are children, not bargaining chips. Trump can end family separations with one phone call -- but instead he's holding thousands of kids hostage to his extremist immigration agenda. Will you call your representative immediately and ask them to defeat the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan and the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte?

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills. 

-the Courage team

Footnotes:

1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17467624/immigration-bill-congress-2018 

2. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/shelters-undocumented-children-nearing-capacity-trump-immigration-policy/story?id=55882840

3. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/14/undocumented-mother-baby-taken-while-breastfeeding-lavandera-newday.cnn 

More contact information:

Website: https://mcsally.house.gov/contact

Tucson Phone: (520) 881-3588