Open Letter to Congressman Pearce

January 31, 2017

Dear Congressman Steve Pearce, 

   I am writing to you today as a concerned member of your constituency in Southern New Mexico. Your silence regarding  President Trump's recent executive order that effectively bans all Muslim refugees (and select, mostly Muslim  immigrants including permanent residents and green card holders) from entering the United States until a "perfect" vetting system is installed is disturbing to me. Your silence implies agreement with this order. 

  I am a therapist and I worked in Albuquerque with resettled refugee families from 2007-2012: many of my clients were from Iraq, and I had several families from Syria on my caseload as well. Many of my clients were Muslim. The families I worked with were warm and hopeful people, grateful for the services myself and others from Catholic Charities provided them. They modeled for me an appreciation of the freedoms and values of this country that I had previously taken for granted. They were also experiencing a lot of heartbreak and symptoms of trauma over the irreversible losses and the violence they had experienced in their home countries. These are people who deserve our help and succor, just like the millions who have fled the recent and ongoing violence in the Middle East. By implicitly supporting this ban, you are making clear to me that you value certain lives over others. For being a politician who loudly and adamantly supports the rights and well-being of unborn children, I find your silence on the rights and well-being of millions of innocent children in the Middle East to be a double-standard at best and outright heartlessness at worst. 

   Please let me know where you stand on this recent executive order. Please also let your constituents know what you are specifically doing in response to these ongoing assaults on democracy and human rights by Donald Trump. 

Sincerely, 

Jessi Cross

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Note: I am delivering a printed version of this letter to the Congressman's local office today as well.