My script for calling my senators about ICE
Breaking comfort zones because they're no longer comfortable
I’m a mild person. I like quietness and gentleness. It takes a lot for me to want to write a directly political blog post—or to call Congress.
But what’s been happening lately with ICE in Minnesota is way beyond a LOT. So here I am, calling Congress and writing about it on my blog.
Calls count
Congress staffers, so I’m told, are required to report on the number of calls the representatives receive and on what the constituents are demanding. Those reports can influence representatives’ decisions.
By the end of this week, the Senate will be voting on a set of bills (already passed in the House) that includes extra funding for ICE. There’s still time for the Senate to stop it.
Evidently, calls from us can help that happen.
If you would like to join in this pursuit and are (like me, until now) unfamiliar and unconfident about calling Congress, here are some basic instructions and the script I wrote for my own calls.
(My script borrows from the one shared in a post by @thepoliticalmommy as well as posts by Ben Sheehan. This is a pass-it-on situation!)
I don’t know if there’s much chance my red-state senators will take any notice of my messages, but if I don’t try, there’s zero chance anyway—and it feels better to me to try.
Calling basics
The phone number for the U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
It prompts you to say the name of the senator you’re calling for. Then it transfers you to their Washington D.C. office/voicemail.
I prefer to call during non-business hours, so then I can just read my script on the voicemail instead of having to risk talking to a person in real-time (which is not my forte).
Sometimes their voicemail is full. Then you can try again later and/or try their state office number.
My sources recommend calling once a day per senator.
My script
Hello, my name is _____, and I’m a constituent calling from _____, zip code ____.
Senator ____, I’m calling to urge you to do whatever it takes to stop the upcoming bill that would give more funding to ICE. This absurd and horrifying violence enacted by government operatives must end.
I want to see Congress not only withhold further funding for ICE until there are policy overhauls to ICE’s methods, but also to call for immediate public hearings on ICE-related violence, as well as for the immediate withdrawal of ICE from Minnesota--before they murder another human being.
I also want ICE agents to be held to the same identification standards as police, with a full ban on masks, and a mandatory, visible name badge requirement.
On a broader level, I want Congress to prohibit the president from deploying federal agents to occupy American cities without explicit invitation or consent from state leadership.
And last, I want Congress to bar federal agencies from retaliating against elected officials or civilians who challenge administration policies. I want to be able to trust my government to operate as a democracy and not a dictatorship.
Again, my name is ____, from ___, zip code ___, phone number ___. Thank you.
Broken bounds, broken ice
This is me “breaking my bounds” (a reference to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, as well as to my most recent Serenity Splash poem, “May we learn to break out bounds instead of our bonds”) and stepping outside of my comfort zone…because it has now been utterly smashed by ICE.
Now that I know how to call Congress (that is, accessibly for me, and with some reason to believe that it could actually help make a difference), I can keep doing it, with future issues too. Thus, I have a newly empowered voice, to speak and not stay silent.
In other words, the ice has been broken, because ICE broke it.
“Mild” ones stepping out
in the cold, for human warmth.
Ice has had enough.