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How to Call Your Senators About the #MuslimBan

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Tara Teets
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Indigo Baloch
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Chatham chapter.

President Donald Trump moved to ban more than 218 million people from the United States and deny entry to all refugees on Saturday. His executive order bars everyone travelling from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country for the next 90 days and suspends refugees from entering for 120 days.

On Saturday night, Muslims and refugees who entered the country though airports were detained. They were threatened to be sent back on planes home. Lawyers from the ACLU worked pro-bono to file appeals for the individuals and families that were detained and Protestors swarmed airports in support of Muslims and refugees held there.

Lawyers from the ACLU are declaring the Muslim Ban unconstitutional. Even though the presidency supports it, your legislators may also deem it unconstitutional. To push them to take action, we must reach out to them.

You can use whoismyrepresentative.com to enter your zip code and find the contact information of your congress members. The best way to reach out is to call. However, it can be daunting to speak on the phone with a stranger about such an important and weighty issue. There are many sample scripts online to read while on the call, though.

This one, released from Muslim Matters, was previously published on Bustle and thoroughly covers all of the bases:

 

Hi, my name is _______ and I’m a constituent of Representative _______/ Senator _________.

I’m calling because I’m concerned about President Donald Trump signing an executive order restricting immigration from Muslim majority countries and ending the Syrian refugee resettlement program.

This executive order goes against our shared American values of religious tolerance, diversity, and nondiscrimination. I’m calling to see if Rep. _________ / Senator ___________ plans to publicly oppose Trump’s decision to sign this executive order?

[If there are any questions, reiterate your concerns.] 

Yes, please express to Rep. ______/ Sen. ________ that Trump’s executive order doesn’t represent our values, and that I am asking him/her to take a principled, public stand against this kind of intolerance.

Thanks for your time.

 

If you believe the Muslim Ban is unconstitutional, now is the time to pick up the phone and stand in solidarity.

 

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Indigo Baloch is the HC Chatham Campus Correspondent. She is a junior at Chatham University double majoring in Creative Writing and Journalism and double minoring Graphic Design and an Asian Studies Certificate. Indigo is a writer and Editorial Assistant at Maniac Magazine and occasionally does book reviews for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is also the Public Relations Director for The Mr. Roboto Project (a music venue in Pittsburgh) and creates their monthly newsletter. During her freshman and sophomore year, Indigo was the Editor-in-Chief of Chatham's student driven newsprint: Communique. Currently, on campus, Indigo is the Communications Coordinator for Minor Bird (Chatham's literary magazine), the Public Relations Director for Chatham's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, and a Staff Writer and Columnist for Communique. She has worked as a Fashion Editorial Intern for WHIRL Magazine, and has been a featured reader at Chatham's Undergraduate Reading Series and a featured writer in Minor Bird. She loves art, music, film, theater, writing, and traveling.