Dear John,

We won. Today, we defeated the Rounds amendment – which would have imposed a ban on certain property purchases on the basis of being Iranian.

We have worked for the past year to defeat this new wave of Alien Land Laws that has swept across dozens of states and nearly passed at the federal level. Despite our warnings and objections alongside allies like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), in July the Rounds amendment was added to the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act in a 91-7 vote. This was a major setback.

But thanks to our organizing, our multiethnic coalition of advocates, and our relentless volunteers across the country meeting with their lawmakers and warning against the passage of this new alien land law in the months that followed, the Rounds amendment has been removed from the final version of the Defense Authorization bill in conference negotiations. This means that it will not be passed into law at the end of this year, which was a real threat.

This is another victory in the campaign to defend the rights of the Iranian-American community and all immigrant communities amid a wave of xenophobia and nativism.

We stopped the Muslim ban. We defeated a similar discriminatory property ban bill (SB 147) earlier this year in Texas. And now we have defeated the Rounds amendment, which would have enshrined discrimination against communities like ours into federal law.

This shows that when we organize, and fight for our rights, we can win. But these victories can’t be taken for granted.

Today, we won. But tomorrow, our fight continues. The fight against alien land laws at the state level persists, as does the ideology driving the creation of these laws. And our victory over the Rounds amendment does not guarantee that other iterations of this legislation won’t appear in future Congresses. That’s why we must maintain the momentum of this celebratory moment and use it to further fuel our work.

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Thank you to everyone who took action, organized, donated, and helped deliver this important victory.

Gratefully, 

NIAC Action is dedicated to building political power for the Iranian-American community to advance peace & diplomacy, secure equitable immigration policies, and protect the civil rights of all Americans. NIAC, the 501(c)(3) sister organization of NIAC Action, is dedicated to educating & engaging the Iranian-American community in order to further advance these priorities.

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