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 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/myus2007/petition.html

Action Alert! Tell Congress
SUPPORT HR 1176
The Child Citizen Protection Act

Dear Friends:
Deportation destroys families and leaves U.S. citizen children without
parents. Over 1 in 10 families are mixed status: at least 1 parent is a
non-citizen, and 1 child a citizen. Despite the talk of immigration
reform in Congress, so far only one bill specifically seeks to defend
the right of children to have their best interests heard before
deporting their parent: HR 1176 The Child Citizen Protection act (CCPA).
Introduced by Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY), along with Jerrold Nadler
(D-NY), Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and Ed Towns (D-NY), the bill is simple:
it allows an immigration judge to consider the best interest of U.S.
citizen children before deporting a parent.

TAKE ACTION
Call your Congressperson, ask for their *legislative aide on immigration
issues* and ask them to:
- cosponsor and fully support the Child Citizen Protection Act (HR1176)
so that the immigration system can value families & children.
- encourage friends in the Senate to introduce a Senate version of the
bill. If they want more information about the bill they may contact
George Sullivan at Congressman Serrano's office at (202) 225-4361.

                               What's At Stake?

We recognizes that our country’s immigration system needs reform in order to ensure that immigrant workers, who contribute greatly to our society and our economy, are treated fairly, that individuals do not live in uncertainty, and that families are not torn apart. Unfortunately, the White House’s recent immigration reform proposal fails to address these issues. Indeed, the White House’s proposal to establish a new temporary worker program for foreigners who wish to work in the United States as well as foreign workers who have already entered the country illegally would lead to more unfair treatment of immigrant workers in this country.

 What You Can Do to Ensure Fair Treatment of Immigrants

Write letters, send faxes, or call your senators and representative and ask them to support meaningful comprehensive immigration reforms that provide a path to legalization, reduce family backlogs, and create strong labor and wage protections for immigrant workers. Sign up for our action alerts, and we’ll keep you posted about new actions in Congress on these issues and tell you about key votes. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper explaining how Bush’s immigration reform proposal would cause more harm than good. Also, let the President know that if he truly seeks meaningful immigration reform, he can support the bipartisan DREAM Act, currently pending in both the House and the Senate.

Making Your Voice Heard by US Federal Legislators, the White House, State Legislators and Governors

To find out who your US Senators are (you have two - there are two Senators per state), see the Senators-by-State list at http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm. You can also look this information up at the Project Vote-Smart Elected Official Biographical Information Database at http://www.vote-smart.org/ce/. The Senate also provides a directory at http://www.senate.gov/contacting/ with fairly complete contact information.

To find out who your US Representative (a.k.a. Congressman/woman) is in the US House of Representatives (you have just one - there is one Rep. per Congressional district, and each state has many districts) see WriteRep at http://www.house.gov/writerep/, which will allow you to look up your legislator by ZIP code and send them a message. You can do likewise with the form at the top of the House member web site lookup page at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html

For federal legislators, you can just call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard (the phone number is (202) 224-3121 locally or toll-free 1-800-962-3524 nationally) and ask for a particular legislator or committee.

A list of Representatives' phone numbers is available from the House Web site at http://clerkweb.house.gov/106/mbrcmtee/members/teledir/members/mcapdir.htm (this resource will probably move to http://clerkweb.house.gov/107/mbrcmtee/members/teledir/members/mcapdir.htm in 2002.) Using http://www.house.gov/writerep/ (WriteRep), you can locate the legislator's home page and get this contact info there, as well.

A list of Senators' phone numbers and other contact info is available from the Senate Web site at http://www.senate.gov/contacting/.

Phone and fax for the White House:

+1 202 456 1414 (voice; ask for the Comment Line unless you have a specific Executive Branch office already in mind)
+1 202-456-2461 (fax)

You can also look on the White House Web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/html/handbook.html (look in the "Gateway to Government" right-hand sidebar) for contact info for Cabinet officials, Presidential Advisors, and the like, if the issue you are contacting the White House about is better directed to one of these divisions that to the President or VP's own immediate staff.

State Legislature and Governor contact information is available from the Project Vote-Smart State Elected Official Biographical Information Database at http://www.vote-smart.org/ce/s_index/s_index.phtml?category=State+Legislators. You can also look on your state government's own Web site (see above.)

Because of the post-9/11 security issues, it can take up to THREE MONTHS for postal mail and package delivery services to get through to legislators and their staffs. All incoming mail and parcels are subjected to thorough analysis for bombs, poisons and biological agents like anthrax. This means that sending physical letters is, in 2002 and for the forseeable future, practically useless for activism purposes. The same goes for sending mail to the White House.

A list of Senators' phone numbers and other contact info is available from the Senate Web site at http://www.senate.gov/contacting/.