A Key New Cosponsor For UAFA
Dan Maffei, a freshman Democrat from New York’s 25th District, has become the 120th House member to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act.
Maffei’s cosponsorship brings the number of cosponsors on the House Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction over immigration bills, to 17 out of the 24 Democrats on the committee. Legislation needs 21 votes to be passed out of this committee.
UAFA has more cosponsors in the House than any other piece of immigration legislation.
Immigration Equality wants to give a huge shout out to all of the grassroots – you – who are so critical to bringing new supporters such as Rep. Maffei to UAFA. When we visit offices on capitol hill, they usually say, “we’ve heard a lot on this issue from constituents” – which makes them much more interested in and likely to become active supporters. You are setting the stage for UAFA’s ultimate success! Thank you!
Please take one more step today, and direct 5 friends and family to contact their members of Congress at by clicking here.
Great news. But can someone at IE please comment on this. http://lezgetreal.com/?p=25829
Comment by nola — February 4, 2010 @ 10:55 am
Sorry, I am from Spain and I don’t understand so much how the politics work in the US.
How many cosponsor we need in order we can take UAFA bill ahead?
Thanks
Comment by Santi — February 4, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
…hmmmmm……interesting?……
(although I am one of those people who believe’s not everything on the “WEB” is true or even close to being factually correct)
when it comes to info…………….but YES let’s get a comment/thought on this?
if so then we have to nail him to the wall over/on this!
Comment by Derek — February 4, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
Senator Schumer has not confirmed, nor announced, what specific proposals will be in his immigration reform bill. We do encourage everyone, however – as we always have – to make sure they reach out to their representatives and urge them to support inclusion of our families in any immigration reform bill.
If you haven’t already done so, you can click here to send that message to your Members of Congress.
It is critical that everyone call on their Members to support our inclusion. Now – in the days and weeks prior to the bill’s introduction – is the time to take action.
Once lawmakers announce the specifics of their legislation, we’ll have more information here.
Comment by Steve @ Immigration Equality — February 4, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
Steve…..Thank You
Comment by Derek — February 4, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
I am one of the ‘grassroots’ (out4immigration.org) who wrote to Rep. Maffei back in July as part of our weekly letter writing campaign. I received a letter from Rep. Maffei’s office yesterday telling me that he was going to co-sponsor and thanking me for my efforts. So these letters DO work. Who would think that after 5 months, they would still have my email on file?!!! So everyone, check out out4immigration.org and see their change.org weekly letter writing campaign — now it is just a click of the button to send a letter, we need everyone to sign on and click! Here’s this weeks link: http://www.change.org/actions/view/urge_sen_dorgan-lincoln-pryor-reid-tester_to_support_equal_immigration_rights_for_lgbt_couples
Comment by Sandy — February 4, 2010 @ 4:07 pm
Sandy is absolutely right – our efforts DO work, and it is up to EVERYONE to do something! If you’re on Facebook, please connect with Out4Immigration so you can get our weekly actions on who to contact. Join our group and let your voice be heard! Go to our blog to see our most recent change.org actions and do all of them – they’re quick and easy. All of the actions are on the left hand side of the page:
http://out4immigration.blogspot.com/
Join the C=IIR Campaign to make this the year that UAFA passes!
Comment by Tom T. — February 4, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
Do we have at least all 17 of those Democrats as co-sponsors? Who are the ones that aren’t? Actually, who are all the members?
Since we need 21 votes, we need to get at least 4 more of the non-Dems on board. Even if they may probably not support our cause, we still have to try. If someone can protect contact info on the ones that are not yet co-sponsors, that would be great!
Comment by T — February 4, 2010 @ 7:41 pm
I agree with Steve and that we should not get side-tracked by any unproven claims made about the CIR not including LGBT families. This is simply because the bill hasn’t been introduced yet. One thing that we can be sure of is that UAFA is the only immigration related bill with the most co-sponsors and that the Senate has already held a hearing in the subcommittee (that went very well for us I would say). So things are certainly looking good for us and if there’s anything that we can do right now, it is to ramp up our writing and contacting our representatives efforts. Like Sandy and Tom have said, the writing campaign does work even though it might take some time before you get a reply. Just keep writing and contacting the Senators and Members of Congress and ask them to support/co-sponsor the bill. And also please don’t forget to write to thank them once they have co-sponsored the bill or have replied to you saying that they will consider it.
For those who live in Massachusetts, please write to Senator Scott Brown as he has said that same-sex marriage should be left to the state to decide and should not be a federal issue – basically saying that he does not support DOMA. People from other states can write to him as well but letters coming from the people who can vote for him carry more weight, i think.
We are getting closer and closer to making UAFA a reality so please, please don’t give up now. Together with IE, we will repeat the HIV-ban lift victory once again with UAFA. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Simon M — February 4, 2010 @ 8:58 pm
Steve said, “has not confirmed, nor announced, what specific proposals will be in his immigration reform bill ” but you are not denying this by answering this way. Do you have any word on his decision yet? Can I assume the word confirm means the article by melanie nathan is true? Or what is your estimate of the possibility that we will be not be in the bill?
Comment by H. Cole — February 4, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
did you see this one http://lezgetreal.com/?p=25938
Comment by H. Cole — February 4, 2010 @ 9:40 pm
I’d like to give all the credit for that one to my partner and my neighbours who attended a booth at the CNY Pride last summer and went to Dan Maffei’s office with a petition. Thank you CNY and Thank you Dan Maffei!!!
Please do not be afraid to let you representative know about your situation, They can help you!
Comment by anonymous — February 5, 2010 @ 11:18 am
@10 – anonymous – do your partner and neighbors take part in the weekly O4I efforts? If not, please ask them to! We need as many people to take part each week, no matter where you are. Our efforts have garnered many co-sponsors, including Congressman Maffei.Please join our efforts: out4immigration.blogspot.com
Comment by Tom T. — February 5, 2010 @ 4:44 pm
Yes Tom, out4immigration and immigrationequality are on my desktop all the time, I also have a google alert on each of those websites. But representatives tend to listen closer from their constituents and that’s why I encourage everyone in the same situation to contact and get an appointment with their representative and explain what is happening. They need to put faces on the matter. Do not be afraid, your meeting should be confidential.
Thank you out4immigration and immigrationequality for everything you do for all of us!!
Comment by anonymous — February 6, 2010 @ 7:03 am
[...] Read more about it on their blog: here. [...]
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