A single letter to the Department of Homeland security is not going to be enough. If you would like to take action, here are some simple steps you can do to make a different.

Talk to your Congressperson

Step 1: Find your Members of Congress

Find out who your Representative and Senators are. Congress Lookup is a good place to find who represents you federally. Get their contact information, both phone number, email, and mailing address. You can also send this letter to your local U.S. Attorney or ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) office.

Step 2: Write a letter

We have made a version of the letter submitted to the Department of Homeland Security available as a form letter. It can be downloaded here.

https://tinyurl.com/scienceofseparation

Fill in the necessary information for yourself. Feel free to customize the letter for you. Here are some tips if you do:

• Be concise.
• Personalize! A good personal story is one that will get the staffer to say to the congressperson "Hey, I want you to read this".
• Minimize the use of jargon.
• Have a clear take home message (e.g., "the science is clear, this policy is tantamount to child abuse").

Step 3: Deliver your message

The most effective way to maximize the impact of your letter is to hand deliver it to the office of your representative or senators. You don't have to drive to DC as Representatives and Senators have many local offices you can visit. Take some time to talk to the staff to relay your concerns in person along with the letter.

This is the most effective way to deliver your message.

If you can't hand deliver your letter, mailing or emailing is fine too. Especially if you can coordinate letters from a lot of people in your district.

Organize at your university

When institutions take a stand, it carries more weight than individual voices. Talk to your senior administration to get them to take a stand on this issue. Organize town hall meetings to engage a productive dialogue between members of your university about this policy, it's consequences on families, and what actions can be taken as a community.

Letter to the editor

Letters to the editor of your local newspaper can also have a tremendous impact to garner support. Feel free to download and modify the form letter (https://tinyurl.com/scienceofseparation) as a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. In many cases you may need to reduce the length of the letter. Recommended edits would be:

• Just mention the categories of impact (socioemotional, post-trauma stress, neurological and physiological development, cognitive development) without itemizing the specific details.
• Remove the citation list and the reference to the citation list in the letter.
• Cut the second to the last paragraph.

Donate

There are several organizations working hard to fight this policy that should consider donating to.

• The Florence Project in Florence, AZ, which provides direct legal services and representation to families in immigration detention in Arizona, and is leading the lawsuit challenging the legality of family separation: https://firrp.org/donate/donate-2/
• The CARA Pro Bono Project, which organizes and funds immigration attorneys across the U.S. to travel to immigration courts along the border and represent detained families: http://caraprobono.org/donate/
• RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Educational and Legal Services), which has an established bond fund where people can contribute to fund the release of parents who are eligible for release on bond from immigration detention but cannot afford to pay it; a parent's release allows the child to be released from ORR custody, or, if already released to a sponsor, reunited with the parent: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bondfund?source=direct_link
• Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), is a larger, national organization whose mission is to ensure unaccompanied children in the immigration system are represented by high-quality pro bono counsel; they are now working to extend this to children separated from their parents who otherwise would be without an attorney in immigration court: https://supportkind.org/donate/

Social media

Spread the word about this letter and the scientific concerns regarding parental separation on social media. Tag your representatives at the local, state, and federal level, using the hashtag #FamiliesBelongTogether. My Twitter handle is @tdverstynen if you want to loop me in.