[Stop-traffic] Urgent Action/USA/MD:The Widows and Orphans Act of 2003 (S. 1353)

Sun Jan 4 15:57:54 2004

>From Joan Maruskin, Church World Services 
ACTION ALERT
December 9, 2003

MARYLAND RESIDENTS:  Please write or call Sen. Barbara Mikulsky
 Ask her to co-sponsor

The Widows and Orphans Act of 2003 (S. 1353)

Introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback

Present co-sponsors are Senators DeWine (OH), Kennedy (MA),

Feingold (WI), Leahy (VT), Dodd (CT), Durbin (IL), Dayton (MN), Lautenberg (NM), Bingaman (OH), Corzine, (NJ), and Specter (PA).

The purpose of legislation is to establish a new, narrow category of special immigrants under Section 101(a)(27) of the Immigration and Nationality Act for certain women and children at risk of harm overseas due to sex or age, including widows and orphans.  These women and children would be eligible for refugee resettlement services in the U.S.

 *S. 1353 provides a lifeboat for these vulnerable women and children to be identified for special immigrant status and expeditiously processed to relocate to the United States to begin their lives anew- far from harm's way. 

*The new bill protects widows and young girls who are subjected to severe gender-based violence including rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and forced marriages.  It also provides protection for orphans, including boys under the age of ten, from sexual exploitation, servitude and recruitment as child soldiers.  

*S. 1353 would address the gap between the refugees who are resettled under current programs and the vulnerable women and children in the refugee community who are not benefiting from the existing resettlement programs.  

Please phone or fax Sen. Mikulsky asking her to co-sponsor S. 1353

Phone:  202 224-4654   Fax: 202 224-8858

Thank you!

Joan M. Maruskin

Washington Representative

CWS/Immigration and Refugee Program

110 Maryland Ave., NE, Suite 108

Washington, DC 20002

Phone: (202) 544-2350 Ext. 22

Fax: (202) 546-6232

e-mail: jmaruskin@churchworldservice.org

www.churchworldservice.org