Dear Presidents' Alliance Member,
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We are writing you today with information about an education advocacy week in support of H.R. 6 (the Dream and Promise Act of 2019) that will take place from Monday, April 29 through Friday, May 3 and actions for you and your campus to consider taking during that week, which we expect to be the week the House marks up the bill,
including sharing the
Alliance’s toolkit
for campuses and students. You can also download the entire toolkit
here
.
In this email, we share:
- Suggested talking points and scripts for use when contacting your congressional representative
- Advocacy actions to consider
- Presidents’ Alliance toolkit for campuses, students, and faculty. The toolkit contains links to helpful resources and materials on the bills; sample talking points and tweets; steps to contact your member of Congress; and more. RSVP to participate in the week of action by using this link.
For the week of action, our partners include the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), the Campaign for College Opportunity, Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE), NASPA, and various other university and organizational partners.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019. H.R. 6 would provide a roadmap to citizenship for upwards of 2.3 million Dreamers, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and 430,000 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) & Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders. H.R. 6 currently has over 225
cosponsors
.
Click
here
for the Alliance’s statement on the introduction of H.R. 6.;
here
for the Alliance’s Steering Committee letter supporting the bill; and
here
for a fact sheet on the bill. We developed talking points that may be found at this
link
and a sampling can also be found below.
Thank you for your support on this critical piece of legislation.
Miriam Feldblum,
Executive Director,
and Jose Magaña-Salgado, Director of Policy and Communications
Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration
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Sample Talking Points
- The Dream and Promise Act of 2019 would provide permanent relief for upwards of 2.3 aspiring Americans, many of whom have deep ties to our communities, decades of residency, and cannot obtain immigration status under existing law.
- For Dreamers to obtain conditional permanent resident status under the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, an individual must have arrived in the United States before the age of 18; lived in the country for four or more years; meet certain educational requirements; and pass a background check.
- For current or former Temporary Protected Status/Deferred Enforced Departure holders to obtain lawful permanent resident status under the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, an individual must have been eligible for TPS or DED in September of 2016.
- The Dream and Promise Act of 2019 contains vital access to higher education provisions, including restoring the ability of states to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students who otherwise meet residency requirements; expanding access to federal financial grants, loans, services, and work study; restoring the ability to travel abroad.
- Every year, nearly 100,000 undocumented immigrant students graduate from high school, and many of these students did not have the opportunity to apply for DACA, which makes federal legislation to protect Dreamers even more urgent (Please note that the new MPI report from which this data point is drawn has not yet been released publicly.).
- It is essential that states have the discretion to enact policies to facilitate these students' participation in higher education, particularly around in-state tuition.
- Expanding access to higher education for Dreamers ensures that our nation can fully benefit from the investment and contributions that it has made for immigrant students through elementary and secondary school.
- According to the Center for American Progress, failing to enact the Dream and Promise Act and protect DACA recipients would result in a loss of $460.3 billion from our nation’s GDP over the next decade and eliminate close to 685,000 workers from our nation’s economic engine.
- According to Gallup, 83 percent of Americans support a roadmap to citizenship for Dreamers, including three fourths of Republicans.
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Action #1 to Consider: Contact Your Representative
We ask that you consider contacting your congressional representative to encourage them to cosponsor H.R. 6 or thank them if they are already cosponsors, and urge them to vote against anti-immigrant amendments on the floor. If it fits with your schedule, we encourage presidents to contact their Member of Congress on
Monday, April 29, 2019
, during the higher education week of action that the Alliance is co-hosting with partner organizations.
Use
this website
to see if your representative is a cosponsor. To make your message even more persuasive, we urge you to use this
interactive map
to learn about the economic contributions by eligible applicants in each congressional district. Once you have the above information, you can use this
link
(password is "congress") to find the contact information for the staffer(s) for your representative.
You can consider the sample script below:
Dear Representative: I [write/call] you as the [President/Chancellor] of (institution) and as a member of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration to follow up on a letter our Alliance sent to you in strong support of H.R. 6. I want to [thank you for cosponsoring/urge you to cosponsor] H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019; and vote against negative amendments that would undercut the intent of the bill to protect Dreamers.
As you know, H.R. 6 would establish a roadmap to citizenship for 2.3 million Dreamers. The bill would also establish a similar roadmap for 429,000 Temporary Protected Status & Deferred Enforced Departure holders. This issue impacts my campus directly and deeply. On my campus, [share your campus information, or any data and narratives from your campus that is relevant].
More broadly, in our district there are (number) of individuals that would benefit under H.R 6; have an annual total spending power of ($ amount); and contribute ($ amount) in state and local taxes every year. Thank you for your support.
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Action #2 to Consider: Share the Campus Toolkit & Promote Education Advocacy Week
For campuses, including students, faculty, and staff, the Presidents’ Alliance created a more
detailed toolkit
, with links to resources, bill analyses, talking points, sample tweets, and more. Please feel free to distribute the below campus toolkit widely. Below, we provide a sample description of the toolkit for campus constituencies who wish to participate in the education advocacy week.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently introduced the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would establish a roadmap to citizenship for Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status & Deferred Enforced Departure holders. Colleges, universities, and educators across the country can sign up to take part in a week of advocacy from April 29 to May 3, including a national call-in day on Monday, April 29th.
Below, please find a toolkit from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration containing information on how to support this effort, including guidance on contacting Members of Congress, sample tweets, and resources.
To sign up as a campus or campus group to participate in the national call-in day on Monday, April 29th or to participate in other events, please RSVP using
this link
.
Thank you.
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Action #3 to Consider: Participate in the April 18, 2019 National Immigrant Resilience Day
On Thursday, April 18,
United We Dream
is hosting a
National Immigrant Resilience Day
for educators, administrators and faculty, and community and student allies to demonstrate solidarity with immigrant students. Through the NIRD, UWD is asking partners to commit to a variety of actions (such as sharing resources or starting a club on a campus) to support undocumented students in schools and campuses. We encourage you to participate on April 18. Click
here
to learn more.
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