'LAST YEAR I WAS IN TUCSON, ARIZONA WORKING AT SHELTERS AND VOLUNTEERING WITH SEVERAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS-THE PHOTO IS ME PROMOTING MY BOOK, CHOICES: DEATH, LIFE AND MIGRATION AT AN IMMIGRATION ISSUES FAIR IN SAHUARITA, ARIZONA. (Still available through Amazon or contact me)

NOW - I AM AT HOME LIKE MANY OTHERS DUE TO COVID 19.  QUESTION:  HOW CAN ONE ADVOCATE FROM HOME?

It's definitely lonelier and harder to tell if my actions are making a difference.  I miss the energy of the community of activists when we gathered for the monthly vigil outside the Portland, Oregon ICE office.  The last vigil was February 27,  a clear, cold day with just a handful of witnesses outside ICE.   

Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice (Imirj); American Friends Service Committee Project Voice Oregon, the Innovation Law Lab among others organized a campaign to convince the Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walter to make permanent the ruling from last November prohibiting ICE from making arrests in county courthouses.  The petitions and letters went to the Oregon Trial Rules Committee.  Decision pending

OREGON WORKERS RELIEF FUND:  Other advocacy this past month was to convince Oregon State legislators (not in session) to vote funding from the state's Emergency Board to assist Oregon workers who do not qualify for the federal governments COVID relief checks.  The Oregon Emergency Board allocated $10 million to this special fund.  Yeah!  Kudos to my two State representatives: Rob Nosse and State Senator Kathleen Taylor.  The process by which these funds will become available is in process.  The funds will be distribute to local culturally appropriate organizations working with farm workers, day laborers and others who pay taxes but cannot/do not receive the federal checks.

As a volunteer with the AFSC Project Voice Oregon we made the difficult decision to cancel our annual concert friend/fundraiser this past weekend.  Pedro Sosa is working with several Latinx community organizations to provide masks, food and COVID 19 health information in Spanish, Quiche and Mam languages.  In addition, he has done programs about health care access on local Spanish speaking stations.

As for the accompaniment work that I have done for the past four years, no hay mas!  It's not happening due to social distancing.  Some ICE court hearings continue but ICE itself is not doing face to face check-ins.  The situation in detention centers is very bad and there are several campaigns to pressure DHS to close and to free detainees using ankle bracelets to track persons. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/8/first-positive-covid-result-at-northwest-immigrati/ for story about Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington

Like others who don't really need the federal government's COVID checks, I decided to donate my $1200 to various immigrant justice organizations as well as a personal friend who is not eligible.   Here are some organizations to consider for a donation:

Florence Immigrant and Refugee Project (ARizona)
Kino Border Initiative (Arizona/Mexico)
American Friends Service Committee - COVID 19 Appeal
​AFSC Project Voice Oregon
Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice - a portion of the funds go to Oregon Worker Relief Fund
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On a personal note I am studying French long distance via Zoom with my sister Connie and our French teacher who lives in Normandy - staying at home as well.  I spent three months last fall in France and was able to learn about French organization work with refugees from Africa and the Middle East.  I currently serve on the International Program Executive Committee with AFSC and have been working on a strategic plan on displacement and migration.  Yes, still busy but working and living at a distance.  A virtual hug to all of you staying in place but acting for justice where you are!  

CHOICES:  DEATH, LIFE AND MIGRATION was published in December, 2018. I wrote the book to share stories about my Guatemala experiences to provide some context for what is happening at the USA/MEXICO border.  The second section of the book are stories of people in shelters and detention centers.  

Since January, 2019 I have made 14 presentations - reading from the book and providing border updates from my five weeks in Tucson, Arizona this past winter and the AFSC Love Knows No Border witness at the San Diego/Tijuana border in December.  

I have distributed $1,000 to four immigrant rights organizations:  Tucson Samaritans, American Friends Service Committee Project Voice-Oregon, the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice in Oregon and the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC).  

I am calling out to all of you who read my blog and who care about people fleeing violence in Central America

• Invite me to speak to your book group or women's organization
• Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV)
• A group of people who want to know more about what is happening in Central America and our border with Mexico.  Why are people coming?  Are there any alternatives to migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras?  
• Host a house party and ask for donations to humanitarian aid organizations working at the border ( See resource list on my website for groups in Arizona)

I am working on an article that will highlight non-profits or NGO's, Non-Governmental Organizations that are making a difference in peoples' lives in Guatemala.  

​TAKE ACTION:  A coalition of organizations in a campaign to Defund Hate are urging us to contact our representatives asking them to refuse to fund immigrant detention and stopping ICE from taking money from other agencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently detaining over 50,000 people for the first time in its history as the administration moves money from other accounts to build or rent more jails across the country. 

Please join me in urging Congress to limit ICE's unchecked ability to lock up more and more immigrants in deadly and abusive detention centers. Our dollars should be spent on things that keep our communities safe, like education, healthcare and jobs, not on things that tear them apart. www.afsc.org/action/tell-congress-stop-funding-ice%E2%80%99s-abuses?emci=62819f55-a883-e911-abc4-281878391efb&emdi=a709825e-d683-e911-abc4-281878391efb&ceid=729598&ms=2019AA0531

BIO PROMO FOR DISTRIBUTION:

Pat Rumer, author of Choices:  Death, Life and Migration, is a social justice activist with fifty years’ experience focused on Guatemala and immigration issues in the United States.  Her book shares intimate stories of the people and places that have affected her justice journey.  One reader has said, “She lifts up the voices of people she has encountered along her way.”

Pat is available to speak to book groups and organizations interested in Central America, the current migration situation along the southern border of the United States, and the actions each of us can take to advocate for a more humane immigration policy.

Please contact her at activistap@yahoo.com. Her book can be purchased at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Patricia-Rumer/e/B001KDJ2EG. And now on Kindle as well.  Locally, it is available at the Beacon Bookstore, First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon.  The book is priced at $16, with all royalties going to local immigrant rights’ organizations in the Northwest.
 
Thanks for your support of immigrant rights groups working for justice!  


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​UPCOMING SPEAKING EVENTS WITH PAT RUMER ON BORDER UPDATE AND READING FROM HER BOOK.  

• SATURDAY, MAY 4 AT MULTNOMAH MONTHLY FRIENDS MEETING, WILLAMETTE QUARTERLY MEETING, JOIN TO HEAR PRESENTATION ON THE BORDER ​FROM 10:30-11:30am.   CORNER OF SE 44TH AND STARK

AND

• SUNDAY, MAY 19 FROM 1:30-3pm AT FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, 1011 SW 12TH AVENUE, IN THE RE-ACTIVITY ROOM, CHURCH OFFICE.  PAT WILL DO BORDER UPDATES AS WELL AS READ FROM HER BOOK TO IMMIGRANT JUSTICE ACTION GROUP. ​ 
• STAY TUNED TO THE BLOG AS I WILL POST SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS EACH MONTH!  SEE YOU AT A MONTHLY VIGIL OR A SPEAKING GATHERING!
  

LOVE IS IN THE AIR - CALL TO ACTION IN TUCSONAPRIL 15, 2019 On Palm Sunday in Tuscon, Arizona ICE dropped off hundreds of children at the bus station.  This is a story written by one of the volunteers who took action to help the children.  Used with her permission.  

The mid-afternoon sun beat down painfully on the crowd of people surrounding Gretchen, as Dottie and I arrived simultaneously to provide back-up. They were the first 30 of what would become 120 of God’s children from Guatemala and Honduras and Brazil, dumped on the streets by vans from ICE and Border Patrol with no instructions or support this Palm Sunday. Chaos was the goal as mothers and fathers used their bodies to shield their little ones from the burning sun. Yet, as on so many occasions before, Gretchen Lopez was somehow there to intercept and redirect people from despair to hope, from confusion to affirmation, from danger to security.
“Bienvenidos a Tucson,” I hollered as Dottie and Jim and I walked up to join her, and Esperanza bounded towards the children. This “release to the streets” game that the administration plays was one we knew all too well. Earlier this year, El Paso had been hammered for weeks by the “release to the streets” strategy, and here in Tucson, Gretchen had already navigated it before. For days we had been getting warnings that ICE & Border Patrol would be delivering people to the streets, rather than the shelters, in what we know is the ongoing attempt to create the illusion of crisis and surge here on the border.
As The Inn and Casa Alitas were full, Gretchen and Dottie were calling around trying to get an answer from any church who might be willing to take them. It was Palm Sunday afternoon, and answers would not be quick to come by. The huge white wall of the building we were next to was acting like a mirror, intensifying the heat of the sun, and we needed to get them out of it.
Remembering that it was the Episcopalians night at the Campus Christian Center up the street, I told Gretchen that Rev’d Benjamin Garren would surely not mind some extra attendees this Palm Sunday. Dottie’s husband Jim and I began to shuttle people up the street from the parking lot of Office Max to the Campus Christian Center.
“Should I start to cook?” Ben asked as we entered. The answer was an enthusiastic, “Yes.”
Just as soon as we had gotten everyone settled, we got a call that they had released more to the streets. 60 this time. To the same big, white, scorching wall. The exhaustion and despair in 60 sets of eyes hit me like a punch in the gut as Gretchen and I pulled up. What would we do?
One of the Greyhound employees came around the corner with a cart full of water and began handing it out.
Soon another van pulled up from Border Patrol to unload more people. We begged them to take them to the church instead. But they opened the doors of the van and added another 10 people to the crowd. A volunteer from No More Deaths happened to be coming around the corner, and began to get the word out that we needed support.
There was no way we could get these people out of the sun fast enough, so Office Max gave us permission to move them to the shady grove of trees on the opposite side of their building. Gretchen communicated with other shelters in town, while Dottie dove back into calling churches to find some willing to take a big crowd on short notice.
The Mayor, Jonathan Rothschild, had sent Tucson Police Department officers to deliver teddy bears and to let us know that the city would be donating buses to take the people to wherever we could find room for them. Seeing the officers, it seems the last van from Border Patrol thought it wiser to unload around the corner, and soon another 20 people started walking up to us to bring the total to 120.
Back at the Campus Christian Center, Rev’d Bailey Pickens was getting the Presbyterians involved in supporting the first 30 who would now be staying there for what would become the Episcopalians’ all night feast and vigil to begin Holy Week.
After what seemed like ages, Dottie got the approvals from 3 churches, and Gretchen was able to begin sorting people into groups to head out. Nancy would be riding up with one city bus to take a large group to one church, while another bus would take a large group to another. Jamie and Colby and Jim would be shuttling the rest to the last.
While we waited for all the logistics to be worked out, and transportation to arrive, the volunteers from No More Deaths arrived and began to unload water and hand out snacks.
Finally, the streets were empty. There was no crisis, because our community knows how to take care of each other. You don’t have to be from Tucson to be one of us. All we did was take care of us today. All we did was act like family.
Getting back to the crowded CCC, I plopped into a chair, grateful to share the meal that the Episcopalians had prepared in the many hours that we had left them with little warning or information and a dramatically increased community.
Knowing it would be an all-nighter for me, the Wesley Student President came by to check on me and put a cup of water in front of me, before putting her fluency in Spanish to use explaining things to our guests.
“Gretchen is badass,” Bailey’s wife Kelli said to me as we watched her continue to make phone call after phone call to make sure that people got in touch with their families and to their destinations. The admiration in her voice let me know that I finally had someone who understood the level of surgeon-like skill that this woman has for the very difficult work she does. Because she is laity in a religious world that celebrates clergy, it is so easy for us to miss that humble, tireless force that skillfully interrupts injustices on a daily basis without ever expecting to be thanked, acknowledged or celebrated. It’s so easy for you to see me, so important for us to see her.
Today, it took dozens of people to work together under her leadership to intercept injustice, heartless cruelty, and the illusion of crisis. It took pastors, and bus drivers, and police officers, and No More Deaths volunteers, and church members, and Greyhound employees, and students to fight with everything they had and work together for love to win out today. And it did.
Tomorrow is another day, and we’ll face it when it gets here, but tonight, here in the Campus Christian Center, at the Inn, and at United Methodist Churches and other shelters all around Tucson, LOVE is in the lead. Love is in the lead.
ACTION STEP:
To help replenish our supplies and support the work of The Inn, donations can be ordered from our Amazon Wishlist or monetary donations made here.