Category Archives: Policy Update

Take Action on Healthcare

This Lent, Take Action on Healthcare

Join over 2,000 Justice-Seekers in Calling Congress
Lucas Allen
February 28, 2017

Now is a crucial moment for access to healthcare in our nation. Repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could cause 32 million Americans to lose health insurance and raise premiums by up to 100% by 2026. With lives on the line, Congress must treat healthcare as a right, not a privilege, and recognize that access to healthcare is required to protect the fundamental dignity of every person.

Some plans being considered by Republicans in Congress would not only repeal the ACA without much of any replacement, but also cut Medicaid and the healthcare services it provides to people in poverty, children, older Americans, and people with disabilities. Some in Congress would like to use these cuts to pay for unprecedented tax cuts to the extremely wealthy, further widening the gaps in our society by shifting resources from families struggling to make ends meet to the very wealthiest. Cutting Medicaid would further erode the promise that if you fall on hard times in this country, you will be taken care of.

Beyond political rhetoric, this moment is really a decision point for the kind of country and society we want to be. Are we a society which leaves people experiencing hard times out in the cold, or are we our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers? Catholic Social Justice requires that we uphold the dignity of all, which requires ensuring all have access to affordable, quality, equitable healthcare. This moment presents a threat, but also an opportunity to share our faithful vision of a healthcare system and society that advances the common good and puts people, not profit, at the center.

See the Lent Calendar for which Member of Congress the NETWORK community is calling each day during Lent!

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Blog: New Immigration Guidance Implements Dangerous and Unfaithful Policies

New Immigration Guidance Implements Dangerous and Unfaithful Policies

Department of Homeland Security Memos Strike Terror in the Heart of Our Communities
Laura Peralta-Schulte
February 22, 2017

Throughout the Presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump promised he would build a wall between Mexico and the United States and deport millions of immigrants living in America.  Now, the Trump administration is setting forth a course to make good on that promise.

On February 20, Secretary John Kelly of the Department of Homeland Security released two memorandums providing guidance on enforcement of immigration laws and on issues related to border security. The two memorandums, titled “Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest” and “Implementing the President’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvement Policies,” work together to create a mass deportation system that targets virtually any of the 11 million undocumented Americans living across the United States for deportation. The new guidance expands the ability to detain and deport most immigrants and seeks to limit due process protections and seeks to expand a program which compels state and local law enforcement officers to act as agents of federal immigration offices.  Further, the guidance seeks to remove protections for unaccompanied children and asylum seekers who are seeking refuge in the United States.  By prioritizing detention and removal over protection the Trump administration turns its back on our obligation to protect vulnerable people seeking asylum.

This guidance fails to serve the national interest and is intended to create chaos and confusion in our communities. Criminalizing our undocumented sisters and brothers will make our communities less safe, less secure and less peaceful. It is not the faithful way forward. People of faith must stand with immigrants and insist our local and state governments support our immigrant neighbors. We must also meet with our Members of Congress and ask them to oppose efforts to criminalize our communities. A border wall and the deportation infrastructure outlined in the memorandum cannot happen unless Congress provides money to fund the projects. We must demand that Congress rejects the Trump administration’s funding requests for the good of our nation.

If the Trump administration moves forward unchallenged, families will be torn apart and communities will be ruined.  We can and must fight back.  Our faith calls us to love our neighbors and welcome the stranger.  Now is the time to put our pray into action.

ACA Replacement Takes Us Farther from Healthcare for All

ACA Replacement Takes Us Farther from Healthcare for All

Lucas Allen
January 26, 2017

Over the past few weeks, members of Congress have heard our voices loud and clear. Thanks to over 10,000 calls from NETWORK members and people of faith in all 50 states, Senators know that it is not okay to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement in place. Such a move would recklessly play politics with people’s lives and threaten access to healthcare for millions of Americans with no reassurance of an adequate replacement.

We are grateful that many Republican Senators have spoken out and urged their party to come up with a replacement plan before they repeal the ACA. Our calls and engagement helped make this happen. Last week, we met with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), and appreciate her role as a voice of reason reigning in partisanship and ideological extremism to search for common ground. On Monday, Senator Collins and Senator Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Patient Freedom Act of 2017 to advance the conversation of how to constructively move the discussion forward.

While we welcome the replacement proposal, we have said from the start that any replacement must be suitable and build on the progress of the ACA. We would only support a replacement or reform that is equitable, insures just as many or more Americans, and is more affordable for people. Our faith teaches that healthcare is a human right, and we would not support any replacement plan that takes coverage away from people or leaves people experiencing poverty or sickness out in the cold.

The ACA has provided over 20 million Americans with access to healthcare, promoted racial and gender equity in our healthcare system, and improved the lives and quality of coverage of many more. More Americans have health insurance than at any point in our nation’s history, and now is not the time to go backward. While we are glad that Senate Republicans have proposed a plan, the so-called Patient Freedom Act does not meet our criteria for a replacement we could support. It does not take care of those at the economic margins of our society, and many people covered under the ACA would not be able to keep their coverage. More people would be left without access to quality, affordable healthcare.

We call on Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell to slow down their fast-track process of repealing the ACA and to give the American people the time they deserve to examine the best way forward. This healthcare policy will impact almost every family and will have even greater implications for those experiencing poverty and vulnerability, so we owe it to all of our sisters and brothers to take a look at this policy, analyze it, and have our voices heard. We also call on you, our partners and fellow advocates, to share your story and perspective with us and with your elected officials.

Action Items

In a Dark Time, the BRIDGE Act Stands Out

In a Dark Time, the BRIDGE Act Stands Out

Laura Muñoz
January 12, 2017

It’s now 2017 – a bright sunny year with new opportunities ahead and while I am excited for a new year I can’t help but notice the cloud of uncertainty hovering over my head. That cloud began to form when then Presidential nominee Donald Trump ran on the platform of repealing President Obama’s executive order on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

As a recipient of DACA, I have been able to work at jobs that I love (like NETWORK), obtain a driver’s license that allows me to travel, and most importantly live without the fear of deportation. Unfortunately, the few rays of sunlight that DACA has brought into my life after years of living in the shadows have been recently covered with a cloud of uncertainty and fear. Trump’s plan to repeal DACA would be unimaginable and utterly devastating not only for me but also for the roughly 800,000 individuals who have protection through DACA. Ending the program will be the beginning of a storm that will bring about harsh economic and emotional conditions for immigrant families– DACA recipients will be unable to keep their current jobs, support themselves or their families, and most significantly, once again feel the fear of deportation thick in the air.

Today, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) re-introduced their bipartisan legislation to protect the individuals who currently have or are eligible for DACA. Similar to DACA, the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act would provide temporary relief from deportation and work authorization to young undocumented individuals who were brought to the United States as children. Temporary protection under the BRIDGE Act would allow individuals, such as myself, to continue to work and study and be protected from deportation while Congress works on legislation to fix  the broken immigration system.

The reality is that the BRIDGE Act is not a replacement for the comprehensive immigration reform that we desperately need, nor does it protect all undocumented individuals living in the United States. It won’t protect my parents from deportation nor will it protect thousands of DACA recipients’ parents. With the dark cloud of uncertainty and the fear of being separated from our families hovering over our heads, the BRIDGE Act gives us the chance for a hopeful forecast of staying in the country that we consider our home.