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Hi John,
It took the House a full week of chaos to finally gavel into session this past Saturday, but you can bet that our work to advance the Iranian-American community will continue unimpeded.
Whether it's in the halls of Congress, or with administration officials, we have been building political power for our community. With the movement for freedom in Iran growing, that political power is more important than ever — as we unite to help the Iranian people fighting for self-determination.
As we head into a new session and a new year, our policy priorities include:
- Expediting visas and refugee resettlement to Iranian nationals seeking safety and security outside of Iran. The U.S. must significantly increase its processing capacity for Iranian nationals who are at risk simply for speaking up for their rights. This includes Iranian students, who have been targeted by Iranian security forces for their leadership in this movement.
- Allowing Iranian-American families in the U.S. to send remittances to their family in Iran. Remittances, or money transfers to support family living abroad, are a tangible way the Iranian-American community could support their loved ones on the ground. It is very common for individuals in the U.S. to support family in other countries with remittances, including in heavily-sanctioned Cuba. Iranians who have a wage earner arrested or go on strike are at double risk - first from repression from the government, second from lost income. Remittances could help backstop this and thus support them during difficult times. Transactions with sanctioned individuals would remain forbidden - this is about helping ordinary people in difficult circumstances.
- Urging big tech companies to take full advantage of General License D-2, which ensures that tech companies are allowed to provide critical online communications tools and services to the people in Iran, including anti-surveillance technology. Tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft still haven’t made significant moves to expand services for Iranians. These tech giants must make all of their products available so ordinary Iranians can access and operate virtual private networks and other tools that allow them to communicate freely in spite of government censorship.
But first, John, we need your support. Can we count on you to make a monthly contribution to fuel our mission-critical work? With recurring contributions, we can better strategize to ensure we achieve our goals to help the Iranian-American community.
CONTRIBUTE MONTHLY
We are more committed than ever to working for our community and we’re very grateful to have you on our team, John. Thank you for standing with us.
Team NIAC Action
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