Call Your Senators Today: Demand They Rein In ICE
Call Your Members of Congress NOW!
This week we are responding to calls to action from Indivisible that urge our elected representatives in Washington to stand up to the Trump administration on several issues. Here are the calls you should make today, and emails to send as well.
Tell your Senators: Rein in ICE NOW. The coalition behind ICE Out For Good is following our historic weekend of action by flooding Congress with calls demanding that they use the upcoming Homeland Security funding bill to rein in ICE. After calling your senators, use this link to call your representative.
Send an email to your senators demanding they restore healthcare subsidies NOW. Last week, the House voted to restore the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Trump made lapse last year, leading to skyrocketing healthcare premiums for millions of Americans. Now the Senate must do the same.
Keep demanding your senators vote to stop Trump’s war on Venezuela. Last week, the Senate advanced a War Powers Resolution to pump the brakes on Trump’s war with Venezuela. Soon that resolution will come up for a final vote in the Senate. Let’s make sure it passes.
Next, send an email to all your Members of Congress demanding action to stop Trump’s war of aggression. We have to make sure our opposition to Trump's global gangsterism is loud, constant, and everywhere. After placing calls to your senators, please also use our tools to send emails to all of your Members of Congress, in the Senate and in the House (where they'll have another War Powers vote soon).
Your calls and emails are tallied by your Members of Congress (MoCs). Remember, we don't have any real leaders here. Our Senators and our Reps are not thermostats setting the temperature. They are thermometers, measuring the heat, and they are windvanes, blowing in the wind. WE ARE THE STORM!
Thanks for Turning Out to Protest ICE
On just 48 hours notice, Indivisible groups across the country hosted more than 1300 ICE Out for Good vigils, marches, and rallies. The Mohawk Valley held up our end of it, with more than 350 at our IMV and Concerned Citizens of Rome rally near Ft. Stanwix in Rome on Saturday (and another 200 in Hamilton, NY nearby). Great job showing up! Your signs were amazing, and you made a lot of noise too!
Although we did not even send out a media advisor or press release, the Daily Sentinel covered the event. Posts on our Facebook page of the Rome event as well as the Thursday rally in Utica, the Friday rally in Clinton, and the Bridge Brigade last week, attracted thousands of views, and many of the posts had more than a thousand or two thousand reactions and hundreds of comments.
We got our message out! And we also were there for each other in a moment of horror and outrage. Community is critical when we are facing down authoritarian lies, violence, and evil. On Saturday in Rome we heard the conscience of our community out loud, just as we have seen in Minneapolis over recent weeks that courage is contagious--and powerful.
The Strategic Logic of Protest (Ezra Levin)
In his email on Monday, Indivisible’s co-founder explained the purpose of those 1300+ demonstrations last weekend:
"If you were out there this weekend, you might sense like I do that we’re at an inflection point with ICE. People who do not consider themselves political or activists or organizers see what this regime is doing, and they’re pissed. The weekend's protests serve two purposes:
We're preventing the regime’s propaganda from becoming accepted reality. It’s harder for Trump and his goons to label Renee a terrorist when people in every community actively memorialize her for what she was. And there’s reason to believe her horrific murder is shifting public opinion against ICE in America, with most Americans now criticizing ICE for being too forceful, and a record number supporting doing away with ICE altogether. When we show our outrage, other community members understand they should be outraged too.
We send a message to the political class that they need to act. Republicans are fracturing over this. Meanwhile, we’re in active conversation with Democrats in Congress to escalate the fight against ICE using the January 30 funding deadline. The bill that funds Kristi Noem’s Homeland Security Department is being debated right now. While Schumer and Jeffries will not lead this, they can be pushed to follow our lead. Expressing outrage through our ICE Out for Good protests give our allies on Capitol Hill leverage. The same goes for state-level reforms in blue states, where lawmakers have myriad opportunities to limit harm from ICE."
Keep calling Sen. Gillibrand and Sen. Schumer and your Rep, (Mannion or Stefanik) every day. Even a lame duck like Stefanik has staff who have to answer the phone and report where the wind is blowing on constituents' willingness to tolerate a secret, private, paramilitary perpetrating persecution and lawless violence against Americans on the orders of a rogue dictator.
P.S. Yesterday on the "What's the Plan?" Zoom with Ezra and Leah, they announced that the weekly Zoom call is going to become a podcast, so if you miss it on Thursdays, you can listen the next day. Stay tuned!
Rallies Coming Up
Saturday, Jan. 17th, 12:00-1:30 pm, Protest Against Trump's Authoritarianism in Rome, Along Black River Blvd near the intersection with Erie Blvd. on one side of Fort Stanwix, Rome. This peaceful weekly demonstration has music and creative signs. Dress for the weather!
Thursday, Jan. 22nd, 3:30-4:30 pm, Weekly Protest in Utica-Thursdays. 10 Broad Street, Utica (Pirnie Federal Building). Please note the new time--starting at 3:30 pm. Bring signs (we have plenty of extra signs) to protest Trump's authoritarianism and budget cuts and the complicit Republican Congress, judges, and corporations. Dress for the weather. If there’s a cancellation, that will be posted on the IMV Facebook page at least an hour or two beforehand.
Stand With Minnesota - Support Minnesotans Defending Their Communities From ICE
This directory of places to donate comes from Minnesota activists on the ground, plugged into the situation. Everything is vetted, with the exception of individual GoFundMes (not everyone is in their networks, and they don’t want to pick and choose who is worthy of help.)
See the list
Climate Crisis Working Group
Urgent action for today
Please email Governor Hochul to urge her to Invest in NY’s Homes and Buildings for a Sustainable Future:
https://nyforcleanpower.quorum.us/campaign/153113/
Put People Over Plastic!
Join the Rally and Advocacy Day on Monday, February 9th in Albany.
Help cut toxic plastic packaging in NY by joining fellow IMV members at this lobby day in Albany to advocate for the legislature passing the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. The bill has been passed two years in a row by the Senate and has the votes in the Assembly but needs a push to get it onto the floor. Join us in making that push!
RSVP here: bit.ly/2-9-26
Once you RSVP, email imv@indivisiblemv.org to let the Climate Crisis Working Group know that you will be there!
Run for Something!
If you've been thinking of running for local office, or you know someone who is, the deadline to make the decision is close. Please consider running for office in your own community, in your county, in the Mohawk Valley. The Oneida County Democratic Committee has publicized its candidate recruitment notices with a deadline of January 19th --but there is a bit of wiggle room before the filing date if you need it. .
IMV helps our members run for office, so you would not be doing this alone. If you have questions or need help connecting with someone in any local county about running for office, please email us at IMV@IndivisibleMV.org.
Antonio Delgado for NY Town Hall
Many of you showed up for the Antonio Delgado Town Hall at the Jewish Community Center on Monday night--thank you! This event was late developing so it was word of mouth--didn't make it into our email last week. Quite a number of people arrived not sure whether they could or should support a primary candidate against the sitting Governor of New York, but we didn't see anyone who left with hesitations.
Antonio knocked it out of the park with his passion for the people of New of York and his progressive vision for:
the NY Health Act,
cleaning up corporatist, Democratic machine, and big money power in NY politics,
housing and childcare for all,
fully funding the CLCPA (Climate bill),
the NY for All act to protect immigrants from Trump's ICE abuses,
taxing the super rich
Antonio talked about how New Yorkers deserve better than a Governor always running scared. The Governor of a Big Blue State ought to be on the cutting edge facing down Trump's MAGA regime, leading strongly and fiercely, instead of pulling up the rear to pacify the billionaires.
We can't wait to hear more from Antonio Delgado for New York!
New York Health Act 101
Monday, January 19, 7:00pm
Want to know more, especially after you heard Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado talk about why it would be his first priority as Governor? This is an online event, perfect for those wanting to brush up on NYHA basics or introduce new friends to NYHA. Q&A with the Hon. Dick Gottfried. Register
Sum Up and Inspiration
Trump and MAGA are running scared. Their popularity on immigration--their signature issue--is plummeting because of their illegal overreach in city after city. Our job is to keep their repeated failures to help Americans in real life at the forefront, and at the same time, begin to do the work of helping elect Democrats --Democrats who will focus on accountability, safety from gestapo like thugs, democracy, justice, and the well being of regular working people and their families.
We have no time to lose. Decide now what you will do to get candidates on the ballot, how you will show up for rallies and demonstrations, the time and energy and money you are willing to give to save this democracy, recover what has been lost, and soon, build something better.
As Heather Cox Richardson said recently, "The shift from consent to fear is already underway. And if we wait until the structure is fully built to name it, it may be too late to take it down."
Are you ready?
Democracy is not a Spectator Sport
Website: indivisiblemv.org
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