The union representing California correctional officers waded into international politics Monday with a letter urging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to change her position on emergency aid for Iran.

Feinstein, a California Democrat, has supported the International Monetary Fund loaning Iran $5 billion to help the country recover from a coronavirus outbreak. The virus has infected about 75,000 people there and killed about 4,700, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

President Donald Trump plans to block the loan based on concerns that Iran’s leaders could use the money to try to skirt strict U.S. sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The sanctions have been a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s Iran policy since Trump abandoned a 2015 international nuclear deal with the country.

Feinstein urged Trump to support the loan in a letter on Thursday, saying the money would help prevent the disease from spreading and destabilizing the region. Feinstein suggested IMF oversight of the money could prevent inappropriate spending.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association on Monday encouraged Feinstein to support Trump.

“We support the Trump administration’s decision to block this loan on the grounds that the Iranian regime still has billions of dollars in their sovereign wealth fund which could be used for pandemic response,” the union’s letter states.

The union’s letter is signed by CCPOA President Glen Stailey and six other executive union officers. Stailey has been the union’s president since October. He succeeded Kurt Stoetzl, who had been in the job since just January of 2019.

The letter’s authors argue the IMF loan would be an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars, since the U.S. contributes to the fund.

“We need to spend our dollars confronting the problem in front of us, not subsidizing authoritarians on the other side of the globe,” the letter states.

Feinstein’s office declined to comment on the union letter.

A CCPOA spokeswoman did not respond to an interview request. The bottom of the letter to Feinstein suggests it was also sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom and to Trump.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 6:30 AM.