Dear friends,
Looking back, there’s no question: this has been a historic year of accomplishments for our community.
Here’s what we accomplished together in 2015:
- We helped secure a historic nuclear deal with Iran that prevented both war and nuclear proliferation.
- We helped lead effort to win the necessary votes for the nuclear deal in Congress and prevent it from being scuttled.
- We blocked AIPAC’s push for diplomacy-killing sanctions, which was listed as the number two priority for the new Congress by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
- We rallied support for the Schakowsky-Doggett-Price House letter, which assured negotiators that the U.S. would be able to protect a strong nuclear deal from hawks in Congress.
- We protected Iranian students by convincing UMass Amherst to reverse its decision to ban Iranian students.
- We broke the story and led the charge on the discriminatory changes to the visa waiver reform program, generating over 81,000 actions from our community.
- We launched NIAC’s 501(c)(4) sister organization NIAC Action to give the Iranian-American community a stronger political voice.
- We launched 50 NIAC Action grassroots chapters, which led to over 142,000 petitions and phone calls and dozens of direct meetings with staffers and Members of Congress.
- We published op-eds and articles in leading outlets like The New York Times, Reuters, CNN, and Foreign Affairs.
We have achieved so much – and we must not take it for granted. NIAC, with the help of NIAC Action and your support, is building on the momentum we gained in 2015!
Here are our 2016 New Year’s resolutions:
- We will defend the Iran nuclear deal by blocking new sanctions on Iran.
- We will secure the lifting of existing sanctions under the nuclear deal, helping to relieve the plight of Iranians and Iranian Americans.
- We will repeal the new discriminatory Visa Waiver law and prevent Iranian Americans from becoming second-class citizens of United States.
- We will continue to defend the rights of Iranian Americans in Congress and in the media against xenophobia, discrimination and bigotry.
Of course, none of this work is possible without your support. Please contribute what you can today: $100, $250 or an amount right for you so we can achieve these goals together. It is 100% tax-deductible!
Have a happy new year!
Elham Khatami
NIAC National Outreach Director