Take Action: SBA Barring Green Card holders

Taking some level of political action is more important than typing behind the screens. Small businesses owned by immigrants have been an essential fabric of this country, a lot of us owe our quality of life to the businesses our immigrant parents ran. Here's a GPT prompt you can copy and paste to your preferred GPT to generate letters to your specific representatives, highlighting the impact of legal immigrants and small businesses in your locale and urging action: # Prompt: Generate Letters to Your Representatives Opposing the SBA Green Card Holder Loan Ban Fill in the bracketed fields with your own information before sending. --- I need you to write letters to my federal representatives opposing the SBA's policy notice issued February 2, 2026, which bars lawful permanent residents (green card holders) from any ownership stake in businesses applying for SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, effective March 1, 2026. The policy requires 100% U.S. citizen or national ownership and rescinds the prior 5% foreign-national exception. ## My Information - **My city and state:** [e.g., Portland, Oregon] - **My ZIP code:** [e.g., 97201] - **Writing as:** [individual constituent / on behalf of an organization — if org, provide name] - **Personal connection to the issue (optional but strongly recommended):** [e.g., "I am a green card holder who owns a small business," or "My neighborhood's main commercial corridor is anchored by immigrant-owned businesses," or "I am a small business lender who has seen the impact of these restrictions firsthand." Even naming a specific local immigrant-owned business you support adds weight.] ## What I Need 1. **Look up my current U.S. House representative and both U.S. Senators** based on my ZIP code and state. Include their correct office addresses and relevant committee assignments. 2. **Look up public contact information for each representative**, including their official web contact form URL, any public email addresses (e.g., redacted redacted DC and district office phone numbers, and mailing addresses. Present these clearly and ask me whether I'd prefer to submit via email, web form, or printed mail — and note that web contact forms are generally the most effective channel because they get logged in the office's constituent management system and tagged by issue, but that calling the DC office is the single highest-impact action (a one-minute call gets tallied immediately and offices weigh call volume heavily). 3. **Write a separate, tailored letter to each representative** (3 letters total). Each letter should: - Be customized to the recipient's specific committee positions, public statements, and legislative leverage - Reference my city/region specifically — name local neighborhoods, commercial corridors, or industries where immigrant-owned businesses are concentrated - Search for and include local/regional data on immigrant entrepreneurship and economic contribution in my area 3. **Each letter must make the following arguments:** **Legal/moral argument:** Green card holders are lawful permanent residents who underwent rigorous vetting, paid fees, and were formally admitted to the United States. Many are on the path to citizenship. They pay taxes at every level of government. Barring them from SBA lending punishes people who followed every rule this country set. **Economic argument — use these national data points and supplement with local data:** - Immigrants are 80% more likely to start a business than U.S.-born citizens (National Bureau of Economic Research) - Immigrants have formed approximately 25% of all new U.S. businesses, with rates exceeding 40% in some states (U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners) - Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. entrepreneurs is an immigrant - Immigrant-founded firms are 35% more likely to hold patents (NBER) - The Congressional Budget Office projects immigration between 2024 and 2034 will boost GDP by $8.9 trillion and add $1.2 trillion in federal revenues - Community lenders report approximately 10% of SBA-backed loans involve lawful permanent resident ownership - Search for any available data on immigrant-owned businesses, SBA lending volume, or small business economic impact specific to my city or region **SBA mission argument:** The Small Business Act charges the SBA with expanding access to capital. This policy does the opposite. Affected businesses will be forced toward conventional loans with higher rates and stricter qualification requirements, or simply won't qualify. The result is fewer businesses funded, fewer jobs created, and less tax revenue. **Timeline argument:** The 27-day window between announcement (Feb 2) and implementation (March 1) is deliberately punitive. Businesses with pending applications, those mid-transaction, and those with mixed-status ownership structures have no realistic path to compliance. 4. **Each letter must include these specific asks:** - **Rescind or delay:** Publicly pressure SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler to rescind or at minimum delay the March 1 effective date - **Legislate:** Introduce or co-sponsor legislation codifying lawful permanent resident eligibility for SBA loan programs, preventing future administrative reversals - **Appropriations:** Attach restrictions in upcoming appropriations or funding legislation to prohibit the SBA from using federal funds to enforce this exclusion - **Hearings (for Senators on Judiciary or relevant committees):** Demand hearings and call the SBA Administrator to testify on the policy's legal basis and projected economic impact 5. **Additional context to reference where relevant:** - This is the second reversal of SBA citizenship rules in under two months — in December 2025, the SBA briefly allowed up to 5% foreign-national ownership while specifically banning Chinese citizens, before reversing course entirely - The policy cites the January 2025 executive order "Protecting the American People Against Invasion" — an immigration enforcement order being applied to strip lending rights from lawful permanent residents - Organizations opposing the policy include: the CAMEO Network, Small Business Majority, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, and community lenders nationwide - Senate Small Business Committee Ranking Member Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and House Small Business Committee Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) have issued statements condemning the policy - The SBA closed fiscal year 2025 with record loan volume ($44.8 billion across 84,400 loans), demonstrating the program's importance ## Format Requirements - Professional constituent letter format with date, recipient address block, RE line, salutation, body, and closing - Provide all three letters in a single document with page breaks between them - Include placeholder brackets [Your Full Name], [Your Address], etc. for my personal details - Bold key argument headers within the body for scanability (congressional staffers process high volumes of mail) - Tone: respectful, firm, data-driven, and urgent given the March 1 deadline - Each letter should be approximately 1.5–2 pages