Tell Congress to do right by survivors in the next COVID-19 legislation

Tell Congress to do right by survivors in the next COVID-19 legislation!

Congressional leadership is negotiating NOW on the next COVID-19 relief bill. The Senate has introduced its version of a COVID-19 bill (HEALS). Once it passes the Senate, House and Senate leaders will need to reconcile the HEALS Act with the House COVID-19 bill (HEROES), which passed back in May with bipartisan support (see one-pager or detailed title-by-title summary). You can find a comparison of the HEALS Act and HEROES Act HERE. Congress will then vote on the final bill, which will likely be the last relief package we will see, at least for a long while.

Survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, and the advocates that serve them, NEED YOUR HELP! Congress has passed three bills so far, but none provide crucial targeted relief that would specifically benefit immigrant families, including immigrant survivors; dedicated funding for many hard-hit survivor-serving programs; or sufficient funding to truly meet survivors’ needs. This is especially alarming knowing that during this health and economic crisis there has been an increase in interpersonal violence!

There is still time to tell your Members of Congress that we cannot short change survivors a 4th time!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress that we
must do right by survivors!

Please flood Congress with phone calls, fill Members of Congress’ email inboxes, and blanket local newspapers with op-eds and letters to the editor. Social media posts are also useful, but it is even more effective to both tweet AND email or pick up the phone.

If you can, contact your Members of Congress more than once! You can find your Senators’ contact information HERE and your Representative’s contact information HERE. Try calling district offices as well as DC offices.

Resources

Toolkit from the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF) with call scripts, op-ed and letter to the editor templates, sample emails, survivor and advocate stories, and social media content HERE.

Suggested Call/Email Script: "Hello. My name is [your name], and I am a constituent calling from [your location and, if applicable, your program]. COVID-19 disproportionately impacts victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and immigrant survivors are particularly vulnerable.

The Senate HEALS Act leaves out important provisions from the House HEROES Act that increase critical support for immigrants and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In addition, there is room to improve on the HEROES Act's provisions to strengthen the assistance it provided to survivors.

I’m calling today to urge you to ensure that provisions crucial for immigrant survivors are in the [depending on whether you’re talking to a Senate or House office, “Senate COVID-19 bill” or “final COVID-19 package that emerges from House and Senate negotiations.”]

"This next package from Congress must, at a minimum:

Ensure that access to safety for immigrant survivors is not compromised by ensuring they have access to health and economic supports, as well as by restricting immigration enforcement at sensitive locations like courts and hospitals and by prohibiting the detention or deportation of survivors with pending immigration applications;"

[See this updated AIS backgrounder that provides more detail on the needs of immigrant survivors and provisions to address them. Highlight the provisions that are most important to you, your agency, and/or the survivors you serve. Send the link or share the pdf (available at the link) with the legislator’s office.]

"Congress must also:"

[Raise any or all of the additional urgent requests from the NTF that are in this NTF action alert, especially the requests for dedicated funding for culturally-specific organizations and for sexual assault services.]

Please protect the health, safety, and economic security of all survivors of domestic and sexual violence by supporting these important provisions and ensuring that they are included in the next COVID-19 aid package."

Thank you all for standing with survivors and for your advocacy!

Yours in solidarity,
Archi, Cecelia, Grace & Rosie, AIS Co-Chairs