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Refugee Resettlement: An Update
January 9, 2020 By Christie Black, Director of Engagement I have been working within the Phoenix refugee community since 2015, and my immigrant friends have become a part of my everyday life. When the president issued Executive Order 13888 last fall, which requires all state and local governments to opt in to receive refugees in 2020, my heart sank into my stomach. I thought back to when I was volunteering for a local non-profit in 2016. I was helping with their Facebook posting, which required me to receive Google alerts for any mention of the word “refugees.” Some of the media notifications were absolutely ugly — and absolutely false —…
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Urgent Call to Action: Proposed Fee Increase by USCIS
December 10, 2019 On November 14, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed a fee schedule adjustment that would drastically increase fees for naturalization, asylum, DACA, work permits, and more. The proposed rule would also eliminate fee waivers for citizenship, lawful permanent residency, employment authorization, and other applications. In addition, it would increase fees for obtaining family history records through USCIS by 500% — a move that would have a significantly negative impact on genealogy and family history research. These drastic fee hikes functionally change immigration policy by placing almost all immigration procedures out of financial reach. The fee for an application for citizenship, for example, would be raised…
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Call to Action: Call Your Representatives About Migrant Protection Protocol
November 21, 2019 Last week MWEG introduced the Principles of Ethical Government. One of the three guiding principles is responsibility — that “all human beings are mutually accountable to their fellow human beings.” We believe we will be held responsible by our Heavenly Parents for how we treat each other or allow others to be treated. This is no less true of how we are treating our brothers and sisters south of the border who are suffering in Mexico as they wait for asylum to be granted. In January of this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a new policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP, also publicly…
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Official Statement from Mormon Women for Ethical Government on Child Detention
August 23, 2019 Mormon Women for Ethical Government condemns the regulation announced by the Trump administration on Wednesday that would abolish the 20-day limit on holding families in jails. Our opposition to this regulation is grounded in our clear and deeply held conviction that families are sacred and all children deserve to be cherished and protected. A government that disregards clear evidence of its own abuse deserves a strong rebuke and should immediately correct the harm it is causing to innocents, many of whom bring with them past trauma. To knowingly inflict further trauma on families upon their arrival at the southern border is intolerable. While children are already a…
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Official Statement From Mormon Women for Ethical Government on New Asylum Rule and in Defense of Fair and Just Policy Solutions
July 16, 2019 Yesterday the Trump administration published a new rule designed to end most asylum protections for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration claims this action is necessary in order to stop the flow of migrants, but the change certainly violates the spirit of asylum and is likely illegal under both U.S. law and international conventions. Mormon Women for Ethical Government recognizes that our nation is suffering real consequences as a result of poor public policy surrounding human migration and immigration. However, we feel a moral imperative to sound a watchword following the intensification of defamatory language and uptick in extra-legal policies produced by the President and…
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Official Statement From Mormon Women for Ethical Government on the Victimization of Children in Our Broken Immigration System
June 6, 2019 Last week, the Acting Inspector General released a report recommending that the Department of Homeland Security take immediate action to address the dangerous and inhumane treatment of detainees, including family units and unaccompanied minors, at a border patrol processing center in El Paso, Texas. On Monday, we learned that 37 migrant children between the ages of five and twelve were kept in vans in the sweltering Texas heat last July for between 23-39 hours, depending on the child, while waiting to be processed for reunification with their parents. This happened after public outrage forced the administration to backpedal on its inhumane zero-tolerance policy that led to thousands…
