Support and Co-sponsor Community Safety and Security Act (HR.6691)
Senator Diane Feinstein
SF Office: (415) 393-0707
DC Office: (202) 224-3841
LA Office: (310) 914-7300
Fresno Office: (559) 485-7430
San Diego Office: (619) 231-9712
If you can't get through to one office, try another. There is no benefit to calling one office over another. Leaving a voicemail is as good as reaching a live person.
Senator Kamala Harris
SF Office: (415) 981-9369
DC Office: (202) 224-3553
Sacramento Office: (916) 448-2787
LA Office: (213) 894-5000
San Diego Office: (619) 239-3884
Call the SF office first, but try the other offices if you can’t get through. If you can’t get a live person, leave a voicemail and also send a follow-up email written in your own words.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
I urge the Senator to vote NO on HR 6691 Community Safety and Security Act of 2018, which has recently passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee of which she is a member.
This legislation would broaden the range of offenses mandating detention and deportation for immigrants. The immigrant community is already prone to some of the highest rates of criminal deportation. The proposed law is overly expansive, one-size-fits-all policies that dismiss individual circumstance target the most vulnerable immigrant and refugee families who have demonstrated transformation and resilience despite unspeakable obstacles. We don’t need more laws that will expand mass incarceration and deportation while turning a blind eye toward justice. I urge the Senator to vote No on HR 6691 when it comes to the Senate.
Background
If passed, this bill would expand the definition of “crime of violence,” making more immigrants vulnerable to mandatory detention and deportation for aggravated felonies. After the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)was passed in 1996, thousands of Southeast Asian American (SEAA) immigrants living in the country as lawful permanent residents suddenly became vulnerable for an overly broad range of offenses. Due to these unjust, punitive, and expansive detention and deportation laws, these individuals become subjected to harsh and unfair double jeopardy in the form of incarceration and deportation years—and even decades—later after serving their time and transforming their lives.
H.R. 6691 could have significant exclusionary effects on federal criminal justice laws and legislation. Carelessly expanding the definition of a “crime of violence” will change criminal procedures under current law and lead to more people being unnecessarily detained both pre-trial and post-conviction. This goes against bipartisan efforts to reform the criminal justice system. For example, proposed legislation such as H.R. 4833 (Bail Fairness Act); H.R. 5043 (Fresh Start Act); and H.R. 5575 (Pathway to Parenting Act) bars people convicted of a crime of violence from pretrial release considerations, expungement of crimes, and receiving visitors. Expanding the definition of a crime of violence would exclude some of the very people meant to be helped by these bills.