Film Screening - DETAINED: THE NEW BEDFORD IMMIGRATION RAID

 

From the Western MA Coalition for Immigrant and Worker Rights blog:

Food for Thought Books and
Western MA Coalition for Immigrant & Worker Rights present:

DETAINED: THE NEW BEDFORD IMMIGRATION RAID
A film by Jenny Alexander

On March 6, 2007, US Immigration officials raided a New Bedford, MA factory that makes vests and backpacks for US soldiers. Many of the 361 undocumented immigrants who were detained in the raid were women with small children.

Showing:
Wednesday
July 16, 2008
7 pm
Food for Thought Books
106 N. Pleasant St.
Downtown Amherst

The free film screening will be followed by a discussion on efforts to organize around immigration issues in our local communities.

For more information, please contact:
Javiera at 413-253-5432, javiera@foodforthoughtbooks.com
or Cecilia at wmciwr@gmail.com

This event is cosponsored by Casa Latina, Enlace Latino, The International Language Institute, SAGE, Western MA American Friends Service Committee, Western MA Copwatch, Western MA Jobs with Justice and Greenfield Community College Peace and Justice Studies Program

 

EVENT: Book Party - Underground America

CAIR Coalition Fundraiser and Book Party

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Busboys and Poets 2021 14th St., Washington, D.C.

The benefit: The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition Based in Washington, D.C., the CAIR Coalition brings together community groups, pro bono attorneys, volunteers, and immigrants to work for fair and humane immigration policies.

 CAIR Coalition is the only organization in the Washington metropolitan area that provides direct legal services to immigrants being held in detention, including asylum seekers and long-term permanent residents.

The book: Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives

Culled from new interviews, the book’s 24 subjects come from around the world (Mexico, China, South Africa, Colombia, Cameroon and others), each offering a vivid, personal, often wrenching and occasionally enraging first-person look into the immigrant experience, what the editor - novelist Peter Orner - calls a “state of permanent anxiety.”

Average news-watchers who think they have a grasp on the immigration debate may well find these stories, speaking for millions of invisible American residents, no less than revelatory. (Publishers Weekly, June 200

Please join contributors Annie Holmes, Doug Ford and Elizabeth McGrail (CAIR Coalition’s former Legal Director) as they read and discuss excerpts from this powerful collection, published by McSweeneys in the Voice of Witness series.

There is no cover charge, but you will have the opportunity to make a donation to support the work of the CAIR Coalition and to buy copies of the book. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from Busboys and Poets. For more information about this special event, please contact Kathy Doan, Executive Director, CAIR Coalition, 202-331-3320, ex. 22; kathy.doan@caircoalition.org

 

Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) and National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Release Joint Statement on ICE Raids

“SALT and NLG deplore these raids that are creating a moral, legal, and humanitarian crisis in our nation. ICE’s heavy handed enforcement against undocumented workers in the wake of failed immigration reform is shameful. Immigration laws remain completely out of touch with reality, and the absence of labor protection for these workers leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.”

To read the full statement, click here

End the Shame of NSEERS

The following is an informative press release from ADC on the Ad Campaign against NSEERS program…

ICE Raids Terrorize CO community

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Press Contacts: Flora Archuleta 719-466-1383; Julien Ross 720-290-1125

ICE Raids Terrorize San Luis Valley Families

Prayer Vigils in Alamosa and Denver Tonight to Support Affected Families

Alamosa & Denver, CO — In what appears to be a repeat of the humanitarian crisis in New Bedford, Massachusetts earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has raided another factory, this morning in Center, Colorado.  I mmigrant rights advocates will bring communities together tonight in Alamosa and Denver, CO, to support those affected.  Although no numbers have been released, those detained are being transported to Canyon City, Colorado , over two hours away from their families.  

“These ICE Raids have to stop. Children are being terrorized and families ripped apart by these humanitarian offenses,” says Flora Archuleta, Executive Director of the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center.  “We need real solutions that will serve our communities, economy and families.” 

Harold Lasso, Policy Director at The Humanitarian Center for Workers concurs. “This far reaching raid and others like it have disrupted lives and caused panic amongst communities. We are at a crossroads as a nation in deciding what kind of country we want to be and how we value family unity, community, and human rights.” 

“These actions do not resolve the root causes of migration to the United States, but further polarize how immigrants are perceived and treated.  This is a disturbing indictment of our nation’s priorities as many immigrant families await federal legislation that might potentially allow them to adjust their immigration status in the United States,” states Julien Ross, Coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “Furthermore, the current raids undermine community cohesion, family unity and imbue fear and uncertainty in the nation’s immigrant communities.”

In Alamosa, a public forum on the raids will be held at Valley Wide Health Services, 128 Market Street,  at 4:30 pm, followed by a candlelight vigil at 6:30 pm. In Denver, a candle light vigil will be held at 8:15 pm at 1212 Mariposa. The public is welcome to both events and encouraged to bring candles and well wishes for those affected.

For more information or questions please call Flora Achuleta at (719) 466-1383 or Julien Ross (720) 290-1125.

MORE NEWS OUT OF CO RAIDS here

NAKASEC Statement on Virginia Tech. Shootings

The following is a press statement from our member organization, the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium: 

 

April 17, 2007                         Contacts: Eun Sook Lee, NAKASEC, 323-937-3703

Immediate Release                                  YuSoung Mun, YKASEC, 718-460-5600

                                                               Dae Joong Yoon, KRC, 323-937-3718

                                                               Becky Belcore, KRCC, 773-506-9158

STATEMENT ON THE VIRGINIA TECH. SHOOTINGS

 

(Los Angeles, CA) – The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, NAKASEC, and our affiliates in Los Angeles (Korean Resource Center), in Chicago (Korean American Resource & Cultural Center), and Flushing, NY (YKASEC - Empowering the Korean American Community) extend our deepest condolences to the students, faculty, and staff of Virginia Tech. We join all Americans in mourning the lives lost as a result of the school shooting that took place yesterday.

 

Our hearts go out to the victims, their family members and friends. This unspeakable tragedy hurts all of us. As a community, Korean Americans will come together to provide the support and resources needed for the students, their families, the faculty and the staff at Virginia Tech. to overcome the grief and pain that overwhelms them all at this moment.

 

From Colombine to last fall’s shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, school shootings & gun violence continue. The Korean American community will join the efforts of others in tackling the root causes of these senseless school shootings that continue to endanger our children and young adults.

 

NAKASEC is a national Korean American civil rights organization was founded in 1994 to promote the full participation of Korean Americans in American society. The organization’s website is www.nakasec.org.

FIRM statement on STRIVE Act

FIRM released a statement on the STRIVE Act today- read it HERE

April 10th! Communities across the country rise up!

Yesterday, President Bush recapped his immigration proposal at a speech in Yuma, Arizona.  To see the speech, click here. 

Today, dozens of communities across the nation are holding educational forums, town hall meetings, marches, actions and other events calling for true immigration reform.  One that acknowledges the contributions of immigrants to this nation that upholds the working and civil rights of all Americans, and that would ensure a fair path to citizenship for
America’s undocumented immigrants. Join the action at: www.april10.org

What’s wrong with the President’s statement? 

1)  He chose to not acknowledge a secretive proposal that leaked to the press on March 29 that describes the kind of immigration program his Administration is contemplating.  Not only does it dismantle the nation’s family immigration system, it undermines worker protections, imposes excessive fees and threatens to create a permanent underclass of quasi-legal immigrant workers with no path to citizenship.  To see the White House plan and a summary of it, click here. 

2)  He celebrated his Administration’s policy on worksite raids, in which hundreds of children have been turned into orphans as their hard working parents have been arrested, detained and in some cases deported, often without legal recourse, judicial review or a fair hearing.  In these raids, even the rights of US Citizens have been trampled due to rampant racial profiling and unnecessarily harsh treatment. 

3)  He also ignored his Administration’s policies and practices on detention.  Whole families, including children, are being held in detention camps, jails and prisons, waiting on decisions to be made about their futures either here in the United States or in their nations of origin.  Such practices are unnecessary, particularly since the Administration has chosen not to utilize alternatives to detention and incarceration that would be a far more humane approach to dealing with immigrants that have otherwise done nothing wrong. On April 10th, join thousands of Americans - immigrants and citizens alike - who are calling for a truly fair, just and humane comprehensive immigration reform law. 

Get the FIRM press statement HERE