Tuesday's with Toomey fights to protect immigrants
Tuesday's with Toomey takes on its next issue: immigration.
One of the local staples for resistance against the Trump administration is redirecting its energies to an issue that affects a large portion of the cities population: immigrants.
On Tuesday, the grassroots organization Tuesdays with Toomey is coming together to take a stand against several action by the Trump administration and bring to light a revamping of the executive orders that were originally stopped by the U.S. courts.
Vowing to protect DACA and fight the revised executive order, the group is not only doing it’s regular protest and action outside of Pat Toomey’s office, it’s expanding on its regular call practices to encourage everyone to call the senator’s office on these issues.
The methods of the group have gone on since November when the protests against the re-elected Pat Toomey - who hasn’t held a town hall in Philadelphia - ramped up and coincided with a feeling of unrest after the election of Trump.
Tackling everything from the protection of Planned Parenthood to the Affordable Care Act, the group has fought several actions from the Trump Administration.
This effort is being doubled on Tuesday as a revised version of the Executive Order that bans the travel of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries to the US.
The original version that was marked as illegal by the federal courts in multiple states notwithstanding, the new order works on a revision of Trump's original language that was used as proof that the executive order’s purpose was based on religious discrimination and not national security.
While the new order does not include Iraq on its list of blacklisted countries, and explicitly does not affect current visa holders, or have an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees - the main sources of protest over the previous orders.
The basis for the protest is on a study done by DHS intelligence officials who found that the nationality of an immigrant is a poor measure of terrorism risk.
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A quote from a call to action the protest organizers sent out stated, “Again, it seems clear that the purpose of the revised EO is not national security, but this time it's to placate Trump's ego after the original was heavily criticized. This Executive Order is unnecessary and cannot continue.”
In addition to protecting refugees and immigration from nations that have a high Muslim population, the group is redirecting its efforts to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program.
The program protects those who arrived in the United States as children and are in school or the military and do not have a criminal background.
With certain actions leading to the deportation of people protected under DACA or DREAMers, there has been outrage throughout the country over the actions committed by ICE officials.
“As part of his xenophobic message, Donald Trump vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail to end DACA. Since President Obama created DACA through an executive order, President Trump now has the power to fulfill his campaign vow. However, Congress can stop him,” said an email from the group.
They highlighted the Bridge Act also known as Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy Act, or S.128 and H.R. 496, introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Dick Durbin as one of the only ways that there could be a stop to the deportation of DACA recipients.
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