Four Things To Do on World Refugee Day

About every other post or tweet/toot thread I see about the way the US is treating families of immigrants has some variation of this: “But what can we do?”  Here’s four ways.

1. The obvious first answer is to refuse to be silent. Keep talking about this, online and off.
2. Keep making the phone calls to your representatives in government. If you don’t know where to start, 5calls.org is a good entry point.
3. Help those who do know what to do. The International Refugee Assistance Project, for example, organizes lawyers and students to protect refugees and asylum seekers. Donate whatever you can today; it leverages every $1 donated into $10 of legal assistance. They also have action alerts (which I just found out about and signed up for), and if you’re part of a legal firm or school you may already have a chapter – and if not, you can start one. Charity Navigator lists several other highly-rated organizations that help refugees and immigrants, making it easy to ensure you’re helping those who help others.
4. And finally, there are demonstrations being held across the country on 30 June. Find one at https://familiesbelong.org, and make our voices public and heard (that’s rule #3, btw).

It is time to stand.