Letter from American Families United

This letter was written to everyone attending Free Hoa parties and visitors of FreeHoa.org.

American Families United would like to thank you for attending the Free Hoa party. We are a non-profit organization made up of families just like Dan and Hoa – US citizens and permanent residents sponsoring spouses and children for immigration – and friends like you. Your support today gives hope and comfort to thousands of families.

American Families United works with families to identify specific legislative reforms and asks the US Senate and House of Representatives to enact them. In Dan and Hoa’s case, if Hoa is forced to leave the US, she will be barred from returning home for 5 years. American Families United has other families in the same situation, and we are advocating a specific waiver reform proposal that would give Dan the right to apply for a waiver to this 5-year bar and bring Hoa home.

You might wonder how a law attacking Dan and Hoa could get on the books in the first place. The law wasn’t always this way. Through a legislative slight of hand, antiimmigrant forces snuck a profoundly anti-family bill into the 1996 federal budget. The bill was never debated publicly, never brought up for a vote on its merits, and most Americans are unaware that it even exists until somebody they care about gets caught in one of its many traps.

More surprising is that none of the sweeping immigration reform bills proposed in the last four years would help families like Dan and Hoa. In fact, American Families United formed in 2006 in direct response to the lack of attention to American families in immigration legislation. We have worked on several specific legislative issues, and seen bills addressing all of them – except waiver reform – either proposed or enacted into law. Our efforts for the waiver reform proposal have built to a critical mass, and it is being considered to be included for an immigration overhaul expected shortly. The next few months are our most critical for advancing waiver reform and helping Dan and Hoa.

Changing the law is too big an effort to take on individually. The main idea behind American Families United is to take on the problem as an organized group. Our approach is simple: 1) pool our financial resources to pay for first-class professional representation in Washington, DC, and 2) organize local visits to legislators.

If you would like to help Dan and Hoa further, we’re asking you to make a donation at www.americanfamiliesunited.org and contact us about organizing visits – perhaps with the same people at the party – to tell your US Senators and Congressman that this a change that voters in their district want.

You can also download the letter in a PDF file here.