​Despite Trump’s executive order, our country is still locking up children on our southern border, hopefully without separating them from their parents. Families seeking asylum can be locked up indefinitely under this executive order. There is NO plan to reunite the kidnapped children with their parents, some of whom are in the process of being deported.
 
Read this information from the ACLU: Fact-Checking Family Separation
 
The way we treat refugees seeking asylum violates international law and treaties we have signed, as discussed in this diary at Daily Kos: The Immigration Law No One is Talking About.
 
Actions you can take:
 
Attend a Rally or Prayer Vigil.
 
Defending the Children Rally
            When: Saturday, June 23 at 1 pm
            Where: Faye’s Field, near the Bettendorf Public Library, 18th and Spruce Hills Drive
            Music by Laura Rodriguez. Bring signs (Where Are the Children?, etc.)
 
Prayer Vigil and Letter Writing Action Event
            When: Saturday, June 23 at 7 pm
            Where: First Presbyterian Church, 1702 Iowa St, Davenport
            Contact: [email protected] to read/lead
 
Keep Families Together Rally: Madres Unidas/Mothers United
            When: Saturday, June 30 at 11 am
            Where: Vander Veer Park, Davenport
            Register to attend here.
           
            We are collecting new or gently used children’s shoes to use during our action.
            We will then donate them. Through noon on Friday June 29 you can bring the shoes
            to Metropolitan Community Church, 2930 Locust St, Davenport. Please drop off
            during business hours.
 
Keep Families Together Rally
            When: Monday, July 2 at 5 pm
            Where: In front of Davenport offices of Senators Ernst and Grassley
            Hosted by: Quad Cities Interfaith
 
            We will be delivering a cage with stuffed animals to their offices, calling
            on them to take a stand and release the 2,000 children in detention.
 
Call Congress to tell them:

• You want the kidnapped children returned to their parents.
• End the zero-tolerance policy that would lock up families indefinitely.
• Bring back the Family Case Management Program that Trump ended in June 2017 which allowed families to be placed into a program, together, that connected them with a case manager and legal orientation that ensured they understood how to apply for asylum and attend immigration court proceedings. The program had a 99.6 percent appearance rate at immigration court hearings for those enrolled in the program.

 
Iowa:
 

• Senator Chuck Grassley (202) 224-3744
• Senator Joni Ernst (202) 224-3254
• Rep. Dave Loebsack (202) 225-6576

Illinois:
 

• Senator Tammy Duckworth (202) 224-2854
• Senator Dick Durbin (202) 224-2152
• Rep. Cheri Bustos (202) 225-5905

​Alta Price, PACG Board President

Join Quad Cities Interfaith (QCI) and allies at a peaceful demonstration at Grassley’s office to tell the Senator to take action to:  “Keep Families Together!”
 
Monday, May 14th, 5:00 p.m., Senator Chuck Grassley’s Davenport office, 201 W 2nd St, Davenport, Iowa (we will rally out front of the building)

• This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced policy that the U.S. government would separate families detained at the U.S./Mexico border.
• On Wednesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) collaborated with local police in a raid that led to the detention of 32 workers at a concrete factory in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  Children of those detained are being cared for by neighbors; 32 families are without their primary bread winner.  The raid has spread fear among our immigrant neighbors throughout the state, who fear their town could be next.

 
*This rally is held in solidarity with our friends at the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, at Grassley’s Cedar Rapids office, also May 14 at 5:00.  Cedar Rapids is also the location of ICE’s local detention center.  Please join us either in Cedar Rapids or Davenport. 
 
Call QCI Organizer Aaron Wagner at 641-990-4594 with questions.

El tiempo por justicia es ahora (The time for justice is now)

U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy in STAT News

In Vermont, Iowa, and every other state across the country, people are fed up with the high cost of prescription drugs. Prices continue to skyrocket as companies making brand-name drugs restrict competition by refusing to share samples of their drugs with companies aiming to make generic versions or refusing to negotiate a shared safety protocol. This is an abuse of government regulations that are intended to protect patients and ensure drug safety.
 
These practices punish patients and worsen illnesses. Families, businesses, government programs, and other payers in the health care system must bear the added, unnecessary costs that accrue when a generic is shut out.
 
Lawmakers across the political spectrum, including President Trump, agree that Congress needs to act to rein in spiraling prescription drug prices. We can start by cracking down on abuses by companies making brand-name drugs that engage in tactics to artificially delay the development of generic alternatives. These stifle competition and keep prices artificially high. It is no wonder that hardworking Americans feel like the system is rigged against them by corporations that are seizing any opportunity unfairly restrict competition and reap monopoly profits long after patents expire.
 
Some — not all — companies that make brand-name drugs limit release of their products to prevent access to samples as a way to delay the development of generic versions. These tactics block more-affordable FDA-approved generics that save patients — and taxpayers — money at the pharmacy counter. When a generic manufacturer is not able to buy drug samples, it is impossible to do the careful testing that’s needed to ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve the medication. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has rightly called these tactics “unfair and exploitative” and “in direct conflict to our broader public health goals.”
 
Cancer patient David Mitchell testified before Congress about one company’s efforts to deny a generic company’s access to samples of Revlimid, a lifesaving cancer treatment. Access to samples of the drug has been at issue since 2009. If it were not for this ongoing abuse of the FDA’s safety programs, a generic alternative could be available to David and other patients as early as next year.
 
Because there is no generic alternative, the cost of Revlimid has remained artificially high and has actually risen fourteen times since this abuse began, from $9,853 in 2010 to its current price of $18,546 for a 28-count bottle. This is just one example out of more than 150 complaints that the FDA has received from generic manufacturers.
 
To end these anti-competitive tactics, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers — including Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.), and Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), and Dick Durbin (Ill.), have joined us to introduce the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act. This bill is supported by a broad and politically diverse coalition of 68 organizations representing hospitals, physicians, patients, employers, and unions. AARP, Families USA, Freedom Works, and Heritage, to name just a few, have endorsed this common-sense legislation. The public also agrees: Recent polls show that 84 percent of Americans support the CREATES Act.
 
Our bipartisan bill targets anti-competitive behavior that keeps prices artificially high, such as when companies withhold drug samples from generic manufacturers or refuse to negotiate a shared safety protocol. Both steps undermine the FDA approval process and block potential generic competitors from creating less-expensive alternatives.
 
Companies making brand-name drugs that stand in the way of the CREATES Act wrongly claim the legislation will lead to frivolous lawsuits. This is a red herring. Our bill is narrowly tailored and would only allow eligible product developers seeking to develop a medicine to sue, only after receiving FDA authorization. Trial lawyers will have no standing to sue under our plan.
 
Another baseless argument we have heard is that counterfeit product developers who do not intend to develop a drug will take advantage of the CREATES Act in order to seeks damages from a brand-name company. Wrong again. Under the CREATES Act, court challenges are only allowed based on continued delays after the FDA has certified the safety and the brand has refused to release samples. The significant costs to submit protocols to the FDA also discourages this behavior. These arguments do not hold up against the clear and limited remedies available under the CREATES Act.
 
Conservatives who support the CREATES Act appreciate that it lowers drug costs by quickly bringing parties to the negotiation table under the threat of litigation instead of a drawn-out regulatory action. The act is not a drastic measure, but allows the generic development process to proceed as intended by Congress under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Companies making brand-name pharmaceuticals need only to negotiate in good faith and provide the samples for testing on market terms to avoid a lawsuit.
 
This bill offers Congress an opportunity to take meaningful action to lower the cost of prescription drugs. It would save $3.8 billion in federal spending over the next 10 years and many billions more in costs to consumers.
 
The CREATES Act is a sensible, efficient, market-based way for generic drug manufacturers to address the delays in developing generics without jeopardizing patient safety or creating lengthy battles in the courts. There is no question that pharmaceutical companies should be compensated for their important work developing lifesaving treatments. But they should not be allowed to use predatory practices to cling to their patents and delay the development of generics at the expense of their customers.
 
Congress has a straightforward and fully bipartisan chance to actually do something to wind down the upward spiral of drug prices. Enough talk. It’s time for real action.
 
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley represents the state of Iowa. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy represents the state of Vermont.
​