Are you part of a group that is organizing to divest for immigrant justice? Use this template letter to help make the case.
Sample template letter
The U.S. needs a fair and humane approach to immigration. Instead, it accepts the labor, tax and cultural contributions of immigrants while building exclusive and harmful systems, keeping people trapped in a second-class status with no clear path to inclusion and citizenship. It has militarized its borders and expanded its surveillance systems, unnecessarily criminalizing and detaining immigrants and refugees.
Corporations make it possible and profit from this pain. These companies provide technology and infrastructure for physical and so-called “smart” or “virtual” walls. They enable mass surveillance of immigrants outside and within the U.S. They run immigrant jails and prisons and facilitate deportations.
Our relationships with these companies are a moral liability. It is time to stop investing in companies that undermine our values. When we invest in them, buy their products, or partner with them in other ways, we empower them at the expense of our own communities.
We call on [insert organization name here] to divest for immigrant justice. Adopt a human rights investment screen and refuse to profit from investments in companies that facilitate and enable violence against immigrants, including companies involved in border security, mass surveillance, detention, and deportation. The Investigate Project of the American Friends Service Committee can serve as a reference to identify these companies.
We further call on [insert organization name here] to examine your other business relationships. Use your existing connections with these companies to ask them to change. If they refuse, consider ending all partnerships with them. Adopt responsible procurement policies that will limit contracting with these companies.
We want to see our [endowment/pension fund/tax dollars/other] used to strengthen our communities. That means investing in education, housing, health care, and other programs that increase well-being, not human suffering. Corporations supporting the border and surveillance industries should divest from their harmful practices. Until they do, we refuse to support them. We call on [insert target name here] to join us.
Signed,
[Group name here]