147 Jewish leaders and organizations signed on to a letter to end Title 42 and Migrant Protection Protocol–two especially cruel Trump-era immigration holdovers–against immigrants and refugees. The letter will be delivered digitally today (Thursday, November 18) and read publicly by one of the signing rabbis at a Doctors for Camp Closure event across from the White House at Lafayette Park Friday. The event begins at 10 a.m.
Since both Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky have credited their own Jewish experience in forming their approach (Mayorkas was even a Board member of the long-established refugee aid oganization and JAIJ coalition partner HIAS) calls on them to honor the Jewish values of healing the world and caring for others.
Secretary Mayorkas has already issued a strong statement on the need to end MPP, and the New York Times issued a powerful editorial this week on the cruelty and dysfunction of title 42.
Written and circulated by Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice (that’s us!), the letter gathered support from members of all four major strains of Judaism: Reform (whose national body, Union for Reform Judaism endorsed the letter), Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Orthodox. Rabbi Arthur Waskow and author Noam Chomsky are among the many prominent individual signers.
With only ten days to gather signatures, we at JAIJ are deeply gratified by this outpouring of support on short notice, and we hope this letter inspires Secretary Mayorkas and Director Walensky to take immediate action to end these cruel policies. Of course, we and our many coalition allies (including the 90 organizations in the welcome With Dignity coalition) will keep up the pressure.
Click to read the letter and view the signers ( docs.google.com/document/d/1BIyTNPiWAfeAWv3OTtjDaCBqPL6m9O0fAKAFm5xTGIo/ )