Neighborly Actions to Buckle Down
A number of ways to defend, protect & care for neighbors targeted by the federal murder budget (part 1 of uhhhhhh). I love you guys.
Hi, everyone. Here are some things to do with and for our neighbors in the coming days. These focus on the federal government’s choice to pay for prison camps and kidnappings. Later newsletters will focus on what they stole from in order to do this: robbing Medicaid and Medicare, SNAP, clean energy, and other things that people depend on.
Anytime in the next week or so is a great time to…
Get connected with the Defense Line (401-675-1414! Is it in your phone?) as an operator or rapid responder. The groups central to this hotline are AMOR, ONA, and PSL RI. You can reach out to any one of them via email or IG asking how to take on these roles. (If you aren’t able to do that, a small monthly donation to AMOR’s operating costs, or having the defense line in your phone and being prepared to call, is great.)
Get connected with I Heart Central Falls as a learner, donor and advocate. There’s also been talk of neighborhood watches and walkthroughs to defend against ICE/DHS, and I bet they’d find it easier to do that if they had more people.
Research 287(g) agreements in the region and call for their termination. These agreements place local law enforcement in the service of ICE/DHS. Rhode Island’s has been terminated, and both Governor McKee and Mayor Smiley stated publicly in January that state and city police won’t work with ICE in this way. While I do hate to hand it to them, you could also write to them saying that you appreciate this position and urge them to maintain it. A few such agreements still exist in Massachusetts (you can see them at the link above), so if you know people over the state line, you could see if anyone’s working on getting them terminated, and join those fights.
Tell your RI representative and senator to close the Wyatt, and block further ICE/DHS prison construction, next session. Tell them that you expect their vote; tell them you want them to serve as a co-sponsor, too; tell them now, don’t wait till January. This toolkit will help.
Call the following airlines and tell them that because of their support of the murder budget bill, they’ve lost your business. (This does not need to be true. We don’t lie to the people we organize with, but lying to exploiters and hostage takers is fine.)
American Airlines: "move swiftly and pass the bill” 800-433-7300
Delta: "swiftly pass this important piece of legislation" 800-221-1212
Southwest “fully supports the budget reconciliation act” 800-435-9792
United “fully supports the budget reconciliation act” 800-864-8331
This article names more companies to yell at, if you get on a yelling roll. UPS, your summer uniforms won’t save you.
With love,
Kate