While the "Interim" small business relief bill ("phase 3.5") passed by the Senate on Tuesday contains greatly needed funds for struggling businesses (including minority- and women-owned) and also additional money for hospitals and COVID-19 testing, it completely ignores many issues crucial to fighting the pandemic and addressing mass economic misery. Therefore, we need the House to demand improvements to the bill before they pass it, and we want the Senate to begin drafting a follow-up legislative package (CARES-2) that covers the necessities omitted from the "Interim" bill.
ISF believes that the interim bill and follow-up emergency legislation and policy must adhere to two basic principles:
- Well-Up not Trickle-Down benefits. Financial aid must flow to people who have lost their jobs, are homeless, or are following public-health guidelines to stay at home rather than continuing to work at a nonessential job.
- Equal Treatment. All emergency-related provisions and benefits must be made equally available to all people residing in the U.S. and its territories regardless of race, gender, immigration status, lifestyle, or their residence in territories rather than states.
As such, any new relief bill should include funding for local and state governments’ emergency responses, ongoing income supplementation instead of one-time checks, funding for the post office, and means to secure the elections in November 2020. Our full list of demands is provided in our Call to Action pages, below.
We can’t stop fighting for real relief to help Americans. Here’s what you need to do:
- Contact your House Representative (Speaker Pelosi or Rep. Speier) and tell them NOT to pass the interim bill without improvements.
- Contact your Senators (Harris and Feinstein) to tell them that you’re disappointed in the results of the interim bill and ask them to begin drafting a new package that does more to help Americans.
While fighting for the health and economic needs of our community members, we also need to continue fighting for the safety of some of them at the hands of an increasingly xenophobic Trump administration. With the rightfully dismal optics for his coronavirus response, Trump has decided to deploy his greatest hits to shore up his base. Late last night, he tweeted that he will sign an executive order banning immigration, and as usual, the details of this order keep changing and remain unclear.
Immigrants in our community remain in ever-increasing danger because the administration targets them for persecution as a way to pander to Trump’s base. Many brave activists are fighting these racist and xenophobic initiatives at the federal level, but there is much to do on the homefront.
Right now, hundreds of immigrant detainees in California are at risk for Covid-19 infection, which is spreading in detention centers around the state. Our governor has the authority to order their release, but despite increasing pressure from activists and allies, he has not done so. We are joining them to continue to pressure Governor Newsom to #FreeThemAll.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Contact Governor Newsom and demand that he use his emergency powers to release ICE detainees.
- Sign on to the Action Network petition from the Free Them All coalition, which demands that the governor uses his emergency powers to release ICE detainees, halt all transfers of individuals from California Custody to ICE, and stop expansion of immigrant detention facilities.
ISF Spotlight
Feeling down or lonely? We’re holding a virtual coffee talk TODAY at 3:30 PM to bring some joy and togetherness to our community. Hop on to our Zoom meeting for some freeform chatting/community building and sharing advice on how to get through this tough time. Join here with the password ‘ISFcoffee.’
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ISF General Meeting: Sunday, May 3, 1-3 PM via Zoom. Register here to join our online meeting. We are working on more ways to stay in contact with you online!
Virtual Pints & Postcards: Sunday, May 3, 3-5 PM via Zoom. Join us in partnership with Vote Forward to write letters while chatting after our general meeting. Register HERE to get an invitation to our meeting. For more info, see our webpage on the event.
Wednesday, April 22, 10:30 AM-12:30 PM: At Home & Together Phone Bank with Democracy Action SF. RSVP here to join this phone bank via Zoom.
Wednesday, April 22, 4-5 PM: Indivisible SF Virtual Coffee Talk via Zoom. Hop on to our Zoom meeting for some freeform chatting/community building and sharing advice on how to get through this tough time. Join here with the password ‘ISFcoffee’.
Saturday, April 25, 1-4 PM: At Home & Together Phone Bank with Democracy Action SF. RSVP here to join this phone bank via Zoom.
Sunday, April 26, 11:30 AM-2:30 PM: At Home & Together Phone Bank with Democracy Action SF. RSVP here to join this phone bank via Zoom.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
If you'd like to support our all-volunteer team:
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Download from the Android or iOS app store
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Open the app and tap 'create new account' to sign up
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Join the Indivisible SF team using the invite code 101-202-303
- Cheer someone on and/or take an action
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