On May 10, 2017, the first Texas Refugee Advocacy Day was held at the Capitol. I'm fortunate to live in Austin and was able to participate. In addition to advocating in support of Texas's very successful refugee

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GenR Dallas member, Lily Martinez (center), with the IRC in Dallas Executive Director, Donna Duvin (far left), in Austin, TX at Texas Refugee Advocacy Day
Photo: Lily Martinez

resettlement program and to request that legislators oppose some specific bills that would be harmful to refugees and asylum-seeking immigrants, the event provided a great opportunity to learn about many of the groups serving refugees in Texas and to meet a bunch of great folks! Overall, about 160 people participated (the max amount possible) and we visited over 40 legislators. 

The most surprising aspect of the advocacy day was that the majority of legislators who received visits from us weren't anti-refugee; they just hadn't taken a public position. The event organizers provided really helpful leave-behind materials and talking points to educate our legislators (with both facts and personal stories) on the refugee resettlement process, the situations many refugees are coming from, and the great contributions they have made in our communities. 

Urging our elected officials to take a public stand in support of refugees is important for strengthening and validating opposition to Governor Abbott's, and others', anti-refugee positions. Public display of support by elected representatives shows other people who may not be informed on the topic that there really is no reason to be afraid of refugees and that we should take pride in Texas resettling more refugees than any other state in the country, other than California. The policy aids and representatives with whom we met were largely uninformed on the subject, so the materials we provided and the stories our groups shared were very impactful. Simply taking time out of your day to talk to your representative about this issue goes a long way. If anyone in GenR wants to do more along those lines, calling your rep (or any rep) that was visited by the groups to follow-up and ask if they had a chance to read the materials left behind or if they had made a decision about publicly supporting refugee resettlement in Texas would help a lot.

Thanks very much to IRC for the awesome support they provided to make this event possible, and for giving GenR members a chance to participate!

Written by: GenR member, Suzanne Russo.