HOW HAS THIS YEAR BEEN FOR YOU?  
Probably, not what you expected.  My last blog post was four months ago.  The accompaniment work that I had been doing for the past five years didn't disappear but it changed.  No more face to face vigils, personal accompaniment to court hearings and ICE but the work still continued via email, telephone and fundraising.  In Oregon this September we experienced savage fires that destroyed homes and in particular, impacted the immigrant population - farm workers and others working in the essential services industry.   Migrant Aid emerged to raise funds to assist those most affected by the fires plus COVID.  Oregon like some other states distributed worker relief funds late spring to immigrants and others who did not receive a Federal CARES act check.  

END OF YEAR GIVING:  

Here is my check list of several organizations that are on the front line of justice work for immigrants in the USA, Mexico and Central Americans.  I would urge you to do what you can where you can to make a difference in our immigrant siblings lives.

1. FLORENCE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS PROJECT:  (FIRRP).  They are the only legal clinic in Arizona that provides free legal assistance to men, women and children detained in detention centers.   I worked with them several years ago and can attest to their effectiveness in freeing detainees.  firrp.org/
2. AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE: (AFSC).  This historic justice and peace organization works in Central America on human rights monitoring and peace-building.  Because of their presence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, they were able to immediately respond to the humanitarian crisis from the flooding of the two hurricanes.  Luis Paiz Bekker, Central American director is interviewed in this article stressing the importance of providing humanitarian assistance NOW. www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/update-emergency-response-to-hurricanes-guatemala?
3. ​ARTISANS BEYOND BORDERS:  If you are moved by the plight of the families waiting in Mexico to file their asylum claims, a new project has begun where the women waiting in Nogales are making "mantas/tea towels" and bags for sale.  My sister and I bought some for holiday gifts to accompany jams and jellies.  They are beautiful and as the website explains, it provides financial assistance directly to the women and their families.  A great gift any time of the year.  artandfaithinthedesert.com/.  Etsy is the distributor.

ACTION IN 2021!
  In less than a month we in the United States will have a new President and Vice President.  Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have promised to make immediate changes to our broken immigration system.  We need to be ready to act to support their actions as well as to urge and advocate members of Congress to act on immigration justice.  

The Washington Office on Latin America, a respected human rights organization in Washington, DC has developed a ten point plan of things the new administration needs to do.  This plan has been endorsed by 173 organizations.  Read it and decide where you want to put your time and energy next year.  www.wola.org/2020/08/2021-immigration-action-plan-outlines-10-priority-actions-for-incoming-administration/

My New Year's commitment:  To write, call, organize and blog for immigrant justice.  I want to live in a world that is immigrant welcoming to all people.  Please join me.  

Persistence pays off.  IMIRJ, the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, issued this litany of thanks last week in recognition of the many people who persisted in challenging the ICE detentions in a local jail:

"Thank you to the courageous men, women, and kin who launched a hunger strike while they were detained in the spring of 2017 to protest the conditions inside and ICE’s family separation machine.
Thank you to others detained since then for your resistance— whether you were there for two days or two years, sent from the private prison in Tacoma as retaliation, or couldn’t see your family because there was no family visitation. 
Thank you to the Gorge leaders who have protested, organized, held vigil, and invited the rest of the state to join them to get ICE out of NORCOR. 
Thank you to the clergy who visited the men, women, and kin detained week in and week out— who amplified their demands and stories, listened and shared life together in a time when so much life was being taken away. 
Thank you to people of faith and fierce love around the state who amplified the stories of those detained in their services and prayers, organized caravans to stand in solidarity in The Dalles, raised money for the high cost of phone calls, made calls to the Board and kept the pressure on, walked in pilgrimage from Sheridan to NORCOR, and joined IMIrJ for our first-ever statewide campaign and action in the spring of 2018. "   

I learned from Central Americans in the struggle for justice and equality that it is important to celebrate the wins as well as to grieve over the losses.  So let's dance a little this weekend!  

​A local pastor in Bend, Oregon and a school board member, asked this question, "Why is it happening?" on a webnair,  bit.ly/2DTsoBX , sponsored by the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice which supports local congregations to become active in Immigrant Justice work.  She urged us to ask and demand answers to "Why were Border Patrol agents in full riot gear showing up to break up a peaceful crowd protecting the two immigrants on an ICE bus?  And they were so abundantly resourced, while our schools struggle to have enough money to educate the children?  Why?  Why? Why? "

    Bend is a city of 97,000 people in Central Oregon.  93% of the population are white (2010 census).  It is known for its outdoor life - most people travel there to ski in the winter and bike and kayak in the summer.  However, the population is changing as many Latinx move here for jobs in the tourist industry or nearby farming and ranching.  

    On August 12, 2020, 2,000 people gathered to surround the bus where the two detained immigrants were held from 5:45AM on Wednesday morning until the arrival of the federal troops to break up the crowd surrounding the bus around 1AM.  A local pastor organized the crowd to sit down when the federal troops arrive.  It was a peaceful protest but clearly in opposition to ICE raids and detention of immigrants.  "If this is allowable, how do we make it not allowable?"  That is a question that many of us working for immigrant justice and racial justice, need to keep asking.  

    One of the organizers working with the local Diversity Council said, "We didn't show up as anti-federal troops or anti-ICE but because we are pro-family and two of our neighbors were picked up by ICE."  The crowd changed repeatedly, "Let Them Go."  A young boy crying pounded on the bus, saying "Papi, Papi."  
     An attorney who was in the crowd as a volunteer, expressed her frustration with the broken immigration system.  "We work within the system while at the same time we are trying to change it."  

       Another local pastor shared that "the presence of so many in the  crowd was an "act of solidarity of sacredness and the presence of love."  So the question again, "why did the Border Patrol show up?"  The Border Patrol supposedly had total authority within 100 miles of the northern and southern border of the United States.  Bend, Oregon like Portland, Oregon where the Border Patrol Tactical Unit showed up to "protect the federal courthouse, is 374.2 miles from the Canadian border!

     What can we do to protect our neighbors?  First of all, Know Your Rights!  Attorneys at the Bend ICE raid scene shouted out the rights all person have to the two men on the bus.  We who are U.S. citizens need to know our rights as well.  

    Become active with your local immigrant rights group!  Be prepared to show up - many communities have Rapid Response Teams prepared to act in case of an ICE raid.  Join one and be prepared to show up!   Write about what is happening in your community - send Letters to the Editor or write an OpEd piece.  
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Why the Border Patrol?  Why did the local police not protect the peaceful protesters from the federal troops?
​
  Demand answers from your local and state elected officials.  And most importantly, this year VOTE!  The immigration system will not change until there are enough courageous legislators willing to make the changes to ensure a fair and humane immigration system.  Black Lives Matter and the call for major police reform is connected to the racist oppressive laws that keep people out of our country and then detain and deport them.  

Background
The current administration has worked to systematically limit access to asylum at the border. When
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) implemented metering in May 2018 at the ports of entry in
Nogales, migrants were abruptly faced with weeks and later months-long waits before being able to
formally begin their asylum process in the U.S. This dynamic was exacerbated with the subsequent
implementation of Migration Protection Protocol (MPP), otherwise known as “Remain in Mexico,” forcing
asylum seekers to wait months or years in Mexico for their U.S. asylum hearings. These policies have
obligated many of the migrants passing through Nogales to live in unsustainable uncertainty. Now the
Administration has used the global pandemic as a pretext to fully suspend asylum processing, denying
migrants fleeing persecution their right to refuge and due process in the United States.
 
Dozens of asylum seekers currently in Nogales, Sonora have been waiting since December to begin the
process of seeking protection in the US. The hundreds of asylum seekers returned to Nogales under
MPP have had their very first court dates rescheduled from March or April 2020 to October 2020, with no
guarantee that court will even be open by that date. Yet CBP continues to place newly arriving Cubans
and Venezuelans into MPP and returning them to prolonged limbo in Nogales, Sonora, even as they
subject asylum seekers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to expulsions with no consideration
of their claims for protection.
 
Beyond metering, MPP, and the state of asylum during the pandemic, on June 15th the administration-
controlled Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule that would permanently dismantle the entire
asylum process with irreparable consequences extending far beyond the context of the pandemic. The
proposed rule appears to have been crafted to create insurmountable procedural obstacles, establish
high burdens of proof, and narrow the grounds for qualification for asylum. Under this new proposed rule,
the majority of migrants stranded in Nogales, Sonora would not meet the basic standards for asylum
qualification, and therefore, would never be heard in front of an immigration judge. The rule would
completely decimate a process meant to protect asylum seekers from improperly being returned to harm.
 
We believe that the United States government has the responsibility to fulfil the guarantees that it made to
refugees and that is why we are joining forces with other organizations, local leaders, communities of
faith, and asylum seekers in acting to save asylum.

'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!