From our friends at Faithful America:

The Trump administration is pursuing felony criminal charges against a volunteer with a church group that provides water, food, socks, blankets, and emergency first-aid treatments to migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Scott Warren volunteers with No More Deaths—a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson—and he’s on trial for “harboring” two undocumented immigrants.

Warren’s legal team is arguing his actions should be protected under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But while Jeff Sessions has no problem with religious freedom being invoked to excuse discrimination against LGBT people, DOJ lawyers are arguing that aiding migrants "is not required by his beliefs.”

The case is receiving national media attention, showing how a crackdown on church ministries to the most vulnerable is a genuine threat to religious freedom.
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Sign the petition:
The Department of Justice must immediately drop all charges against Scott Warren and respect the right of No More Deaths volunteers to freely practice their faith by caring for migrants on the border.

​It is clear that this federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act is being used to condone the discriminatory behavior by right-wing religious groups, but was never intended to protect work for justice-seeking people faith.  Please sign this petition to support Scott Warren living out his faith commitments and to enable him and others to continue working to protect and aid asylum seekers.

Let our friends at CAIR help you at a Naturalization Fair!!

Can you help us spread the word to those in need (including your families, friends and neighbors) and bring in more volunteers? We want to serve as many people in need of naturalization/citizenship help as possible! 

We need interpreters, law clerks, pro-bono attorneys and more at the event.
If you can lend a hand, please email mzahriya@cair.com! 
If You Go
WHAT: CAIR-SV Naturalization Fair offering free legal help with U.S. citizenship.
WHEN: July 26; registration from 8:30-8:55 a.m., event from 9-4 p.m.
WHERE: CAIR Sacramento Valley headquarters, 1122 Del Paso Blvd.
MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER*: Call 916-441-6269; email mzahriya@cair.com; visit the event on our website.
* Advance registration is required. 

Dear Friends,
 
Do not mistreat the alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt
                                           (Exodus 22:21)
 
A brief history of American immigration:

• In 1834 Boston Protestants burned an Ursuline Convent in a riot against growing Catholicism and, to some extent, the presence of French Canadian nuns.
• Discrimination against if not outright barring of Irish Catholics was the norm from the mid 1830s to the “Know Nothing” era of the 1850s. 
• In 1882, although Chinese labor had been a critical part in building the nation’s cross-continental railroads, America imposed the Chinese Exclusion Act barring immigrants from that nation.
• In 1907 the US created the “Gentleman’s Agreement” protocol in which Japan would no longer issue passports to their citizens desiring to live in America.
• In 1923 a court decision barred immigrants from India and stripped naturalized Indians of their US citizenship
• During the Great Depression virtually all immigration was barred, and over half a million Mexican migrants were sent back to Mexico.
• Jewish immigration was also stopped, causing untold hardship to those fleeing fascism. The St Louis bound for New York with Jewish refugees was turned away consigning Jews to probable death.
• In 1942 propelled by fear and anger, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 directing all Japanese and Japanese-Americans to internment camps for the duration of the war.

 
And what can one add to the horror of forced migration since the 17th Century as Black African slavery.  No rights, no freedom, no citizenship for over 300 years, massive exploitation. 
 
All of this and more was done to people who we, as people of faith, consider to be the backbone of our complex society.  We make promises.  We don’t keep them.
 
Today’s Supreme Court Ruling upholding a Muslim ban – and make no mistake, that’s what it is – is a reversal of history and an appeal to the worst parts  of American history and to our worse natures. This ruling capitulates to fear not to reason, not to love, and not to the very principles we claim to honor as Christians.
 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions just called those of us opposed to this ban, “The lunatic fringe”.  No, we are speaking to our core Constitutional and faith values.
 
Despite our national commitment to Religious Freedom, religion is being used to bar thousands who are fleeing oppression and who now cannot come to America to seek refuge.  Mark you, if those seeking asylum and are Christians from the designated nations now barred entry, this ban will not be upheld.  This isn’t about national security. This is about religious discrimination of the worst order.
 
With the chaos of our Southern border and reversal of the existing laws about the treatment of refugees, the separation of families and internments of children, now we have barriers to Muslims from countries that have done no harm to us at all.
 
We are descending to rival our darkest actions, our most base nature.  History will not judge us well.
 
This decision cannot stand.  We must raise our voices everywhere against the retreat to fear and demonizing of our neighbors.  We are called to do this.  It must be our charge.

Thank you. 

Talking About Religious Exemptions Laws is a guide to building effective conversations about the ways in which harmful religious exemptions threaten not only laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination, but also health care (including women’s reproductive freedom), public safety, and more.

The guide offers approaches for talking about both broad religious exemptions laws (like proposed state RFRAs) as well as religious exemptions that are often specifically designed to harm LGBT people and circumvent nondiscrimination laws. It also focuses on approaches for talking about the ways in which broad religious exemptions laws can interfere with women’s reproductive health.

Click here to visit the LGBTMap site to download the guide: http://www.lgbtmap.org/talking-about-religious-exemptions-laws