Please copy the letter below, paste it into your own letterhead, edit the content to make it reflect your view a bit more personally, and send it to your United States Senators.
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Template Letter
The Honorable (Their Full Name)
United State Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator (Their Last Name):
The executive order establishing a travel ban for foreign citizens of traditionally Muslim countries (Executive Order 13780 & Presidential Proclamation 9645) is of paramount interest to me as a Member of the Religious Education Association (REA), an international and interreligious organization for educators and researchers headquartered in the United States. The restrictions of the order adversely impact graduate students, scholars, and practitioners who need to maintain unremitting engagement in order to advance research, instruction, and collegial practices for educating communities of faith locally and abroad. In fact, this engagement produces the affirmative values of dialogue and tolerance among religious communities that directly address the undesirable behaviors the ban seeks to avert.
I am primarily concerned about the unfair burden placed on colleagues, researchers, professors, and graduate students from targeted countries who are crucial to these engagements and whose visas have been revoked with little concern for the contributions they can make to this shared project. The Religious Education Association not only publishes some of the important work produced by these colleagues, but also invites them to positions of leadership and to participate in conferences sponsored by our organization in the United States. I am asking you to support this important work by promoting legislation that qualifies the ban as to allow for academic freedom, international mobility, fair screening and vetting procedures, and a more nuanced VISA process for those who will clearly contribute to promoting the security and peace deserved by all religious and national communities.
Thank you for considering this request for a decisive and prompt response to this matter. I believe it is an important issue, and would like to see the legislation amending the Executive Order to ensure the free exchange of ideas among international scholars, but more importantly among those who seek to advocate for the role of faith in creating a more just and hospitable society. I am sure this is a project you can stand behind.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Your Title)
(Your Institution)