Immigrants and Immigrant Allies: Making Justice Visible

Note: The below blog post was written by Lucy Duncan, but with contributions and editorial support by Gabriela Flora, Jenn Piper, and M'Annette Ruddell.

“That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” – Ralph Ellison

Jordan Garcia with
Day of the Dead Altar
at Monthly Vigil

Refusing to be invisible when people are conditioned not to see is a revolutionary act. Seeing and recognizing those whom we are not supposed to acknowledge is also a powerful act of resistance. Both small and large acts of such courage are being taken by immigrants and immigrant allies every day. I had the privilege of seeing such powerful witness when I visited AFSC’s Denver office in November.

Jenn Piper, AFSC’s Colorado Interfaith Organizing Director, invited me to go with her to a deportation hearing. Piper organizes an interfaith clergy witness network, the members of which serve as immigrant allies, and one service they offer is being prayerful presences at deportation hearings, offering spiritual support to the immigrants in the courtroom and afterwards.

COURT: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) courtroom in Denver is in the Bank of the West building, which seemed both strange and fitting to me. We waited in the marble lobby for Alma,* the young woman whom we were there to support, along with Kelly, a Unitarian minister. Alma, a slight woman with round brown eyes, arrived with her cousins. She had left her daughter, who is sixteen-months-old and a citizen, at home with family. Not to be able to converse without interpretation with Alma felt uncomfortable to me, I felt my being monolingual as a disability that day.

An elevator took us to the courtroom level where we cleared the metal detectors before meeting with Alma’s lawyer in a small room off to the side. He didn’t know Spanish, so Liz and Piper translated. The lawyer said that, despite the fact that she had no criminal record, Alma’s legal options had been exhausted, and he recommended that she agree to voluntary departure. Alma asked questions about what this would mean and learned that she would have until March to report to the US embassy in Mexico. If she did not prove that she had left the United States, she would be subject to detention and immediate removal.

With exasperation, the lawyer said, “In August, President Obama announced that he would be prioritizing those with criminal records in deportation proceedings, but that hasn’t happened. There has been no executive order, and the deportation of those with no record have continued or speeded up.” It was hard not to feel that there must be something more we could do. But really, there is no legal pathway to permanent resident status for the vast majority of people who are undocumented.

Alma looked scared and shaken as we went into the courtroom which was smaller than I expected. Hearings were scheduled for a number of people, not just Alma, and we watched as one man got a year extension to his visa. When Alma was called to the front, she put on headphones so that she could hear the court translator.

There wasn’t much ceremony. The lawyer said that Alma was willing to accept voluntary departure, the ICE prosecutor agreed, and the judge affirmed the decision. The Department of Justice insignia behind the judge struck me as ironic. Piper told me later that one judge presiding over deportation hearings of men in shackles acknowledged that what he was doing wasn’t justice; he was merely applying the law.

The whole process took just a few minutes. I wanted someone to yell, “No,” to reflect on what happened. How many families does that judge rend apart each day? How many does the prosecutor? It all seemed so perfunctory, so banal, while hearts were breaking.

We left the courtroom while Alma quietly wept. She’s young, maybe twenty. She’s been in the country for eight years, hasn’t been back to Mexico. Her partner is a citizen of Ecuador. If she leaves, will they ever be reunited? The choices all seemed untenable – to stay here and risk detention, then forced deportation, to go to a place without her partner that is no longer her home, to leave her child here with family and go to Mexico on her own.

Back in the lobby, we gathered in a little circle as Kelly offered a prayer about hardship and trusting in Jesus. Liz and Piper translated. We each hugged Alma, encircling her with our concern and compassion. What else could we do?

After Alma left, we drank tea together and talked about what we had witnessed, how helpless it made us feel, how senseless it seemed. Who would it hurt for Alma to be allowed to stay? Who is being protected? We talked about collusion and how each time we buy raspberries or strawberries or tomatoes we are participating in the exploitation of migrant labor.

VIGIL: That night, I joined AFSC staff and about sixty others for the monthly vigil held at the Aurora Detention Center, a for-profit detention center owned by the Geo Corporation (“one of the world’s largest corrections and detention organizations,” which is traded on the NYSE). It was early November and really cold. The detention center detains undocumented people indefinitely, without due process.

We gathered on the wide road nearby with candles, signs, noisemakers, and then proceeded to the detention center entrance for a ceremony. The group was mixed – immigrant allies and people without documents. The people without papers were brave to be there, to come out of the shadows and insist on being visible. To commemorate the day of the dead, culturally important to many of those gathered, they had brought pictures of their loved ones who had died, but whose graves they could not travel to visit. Jordan Garcia, AFSC’s Immigrant Ally Organizing Director, set out scarves and candles on the ground, and one by one those who had photos placed them on the improvised shrine. A thin man talked about being without papers for fifteen years and how he felt invisible as part of an underground and vulnerable work force. His assertion was that labeling him as “illegal” was intentional so that his wages would never be fair.

We shouted and banged on things, hoping those inside could hear us. Jordan told me the old detention center had windows and during vigils, those inside could hold signs against the glass to thank the protesters for being there. In addition to the monthly vigil, those detained are remembered by a huge pile of handmade cards Jordan delivers on Valentine's Day. These signs of support from outside may seem slight, but they matter. Any indication that we see and haven’t forgotten them makes some difference.

Earlier the day of the vigil, a reporter had called Gabriela Flora, AFSC Regional Project Voice Organizer, and asked about the status of comprehensive federal immigration reform. She replied that, with the current Congress, there isn’t much likelihood of reform any time soon. With the help of “Secure Communities,”** the administration will have deported more people in Obama’s first term than Bush did in the eight years of his presidency. Accompanying Alma and others to deportation hearings and holding these monthly vigils are acts of faith, the impacts of which are felt deep within the communities most affected. People without papers feel less alone, less invisible. Piper and AFSC’s work with citizen allies is critical to help people understand the depth of the trauma current immigration policies cause. What does it mean to live in the shadows of the US economy, cleaning houses, harvesting food, making do? Or working professionally with a secret fear? Now every time I even think of buying raspberries or tomatoes, I think of Alma.

I think of Alma and take heart that immigrants are organizing in Colorado and across the country. People are refusing to be invisible, coming forward with courage and determination, like those at the vigil. They bravely share their stories and how the for-profit system of detention dehumanizes them and tears their families apart. Allies are listening to their stories and using their privilege to work for change, side by side with immigrants.

For true change to happen, it must be defined by those directly affected. The policy changes necessary to undo the damage done over the last 25 years (really the last 500) will not happen quickly. Real change takes time and takes commitment by everyday people like you and me. In bearing witness to the reality that people like Alma face, by standing with them and understanding how we are a part of the system that renders them invisible, we are working to create a just society where illegal will no longer be a noun, and law is based on respecting the humanity of all those in our society.

By accompanying immigrants in this resistance, we have the opportunity to see with our hearts. Immigrants refusing to be invisible, as well as allies willing to really see and accompany those affected by these policies, can help us to make manifest the invisible, the unseen but palpable, world which recognizes the innate worth and brilliance of every person.

You can read more of Lucy's relfections at her blog "Acting in Faith".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Alma is not this woman’s real name, I changed it to protect her.
** Secure Communities involves local and state authorities in immigration and customs enforcement. The program has encouraged racial profiling, divided families, and eroded basic community trust in law enforcement where implemented.

Immigrants and Immigrant Allies: Making Justice Visible

A contribution from Lucy Duncan, from her amazing blog: Acting in Faith, Connecting Friends to the work of AFSC
Note: The below blog post was written by Lucy Duncan, but with contributions and editorial support by Gabriela Flora, Jen Piper, and M'Annette Ruddell.

“That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” – Ralph Ellison

Refusing to be invisible when people are conditioned not to see is a revolutionary act. Seeing and recognizing those whom we are not supposed to acknowledge is also a powerful act of resistance. Both small and large acts of such courage are being taken by immigrants and immigrant allies every day. I had the privilege of seeing such powerful witness when I visited AFSC’s Denver office in November.

Jen Piper, AFSC’s Colorado Interfaith Organizing Director, invited me to go with her to a deportation hearing. Piper organizes an interfaith clergy witness network, the members of which serve as immigrant allies, and one service they offer is being prayerful presences at deportation hearings, offering spiritual support to the immigrants in the courtroom and afterwards.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) courtroom in Denver is in the Bank of the West building, which seemed both strange and fitting to me. We waited in the marble lobby for Alma,* the young woman whom we were there to support, along with Kelly, a Unitarian minister. Alma, a slight woman with round brown eyes, arrived with her cousins. She had left her daughter, who is sixteen-months-old and a citizen, at home with family. Not to be able to converse without interpretation with Alma felt uncomfortable to me, I felt my being monolingual as a disability that day.

An elevator took us to the courtroom level where we cleared the metal detectors before meeting with Alma’s lawyer in a small room off to the side. He didn’t know Spanish, so Liz and Piper translated. The lawyer said that, despite the fact that she had no criminal record, Alma’s legal options had been exhausted, and he recommended that she agree to voluntary departure. Alma asked questions about what this would mean and learned that she would have until March to report to the US embassy in Mexico. If she did not prove that she had left the United States, she would be subject to detention and immediate removal.

With exasperation, the lawyer said, “In August, President Obama announced that he would be prioritizing those with criminal records in deportation proceedings, but that hasn’t happened. There has been no executive order, and the deportation of those with no record have continued or speeded up.” It was hard not to feel that there must be something more we could do. But really, there is no legal pathway to permanent resident status for the vast majority of people who are undocumented.

Alma looked scared and shaken as we went into the courtroom which was smaller than I expected. Hearings were scheduled for a number of people, not just Alma, and we watched as one man got a year extension to his visa. When Alma was called to the front, she put on headphones so that she could hear the court translator.

There wasn’t much ceremony. The lawyer said that Alma was willing to accept voluntary departure, the ICE prosecutor agreed, and the judge affirmed the decision. The Department of Justice insignia behind the judge struck me as ironic. Piper told me later that one judge presiding over deportation hearings of men in shackles acknowledged that what he was doing wasn’t justice; he was merely applying the law.

The whole process took just a few minutes. I wanted someone to yell, “No,” to reflect on what happened. How many families does that judge rend apart each day? How many does the prosecutor? It all seemed so perfunctory, so banal, while hearts were breaking.

We left the courtroom while Alma quietly wept. She’s young, maybe twenty. She’s been in the country for eight years, hasn’t been back to Mexico. Her partner is a citizen of Ecuador. If she leaves, will they ever be reunited? The choices all seemed untenable – to stay here and risk detention, then forced deportation, to go to a place without her partner that is no longer her home, to leave her child here with family and go to Mexico on her own.

Back in the lobby, we gathered in a little circle as Kelly offered a prayer about hardship and trusting in Jesus. Liz and Piper translated. We each hugged Alma, encircling her with our concern and compassion. What else could we do?

After Alma left, we drank tea together and talked about what we had witnessed, how helpless it made us feel, how senseless it seemed. Who would it hurt for Alma to be allowed to stay? Who is being protected? We talked about collusion and how each time we buy raspberries or strawberries or tomatoes we are participating in the exploitation of migrant labor.

That night, I joined AFSC staff and about sixty others for the monthly vigil held at the Aurora Detention Center, a for-profit detention center owned by the Geo Corporation (“one of the world’s largest corrections and detention organizations,” which is traded on the NYSE). It was early November and really cold. The detention center detains undocumented people indefinitely, without due process.

We gathered on the wide road nearby with candles, signs, noisemakers, and then proceeded to the detention center entrance for a ceremony. The group was mixed – immigrant allies and people without documents. The people without papers were brave to be there, to come out of the shadows and insist on being visible. To commemorate the day of the dead, culturally important to many of those gathered, they had brought pictures of their loved ones who had died, but whose graves they could not travel to visit. Jordan Garcia, AFSC’s Immigrant Ally Organizing Director, set out scarves and candles on the ground, and one by one those who had photos placed them on the improvised shrine. A thin man talked about being without papers for fifteen years and how he felt invisible as part of an underground and vulnerable work force. His assertion was that labeling him as “illegal” was intentional so that his wages would never be fair.

We shouted and banged on things, hoping those inside could hear us. Jordan told me the old detention center had windows and during vigils, those inside could hold signs against the glass to thank the protesters for being there. In addition to the monthly vigil, those detained are remembered by a huge pile of handmade cards Jordan delivers on Valentine's Day. These signs of support from outside may seem slight, but they matter. Any indication that we see and haven’t forgotten them makes some difference.

Earlier the day of the vigil, a reporter had called Gabriela Flora, AFSC Regional Project Voice Organizer, and asked about the status of comprehensive federal immigration reform. She replied that, with the current Congress, there isn’t much likelihood of reform any time soon. With the help of “Secure Communities,”** the administration will have deported more people in Obama’s first term than Bush did in the eight years of his presidency. Accompanying Alma and others to deportation hearings and holding these monthly vigils are acts of faith, the impacts of which are felt deep within the communities most affected. People without papers feel less alone, less invisible. Piper and AFSC’s work with citizen allies is critical to help people understand the depth of the trauma current immigration policies cause. What does it mean to live in the shadows of the US economy, cleaning houses, harvesting food, making do? Or working professionally with a secret fear? Now every time I even think of buying raspberries or tomatoes, I think of Alma.

I think of Alma and take heart that immigrants are organizing in Colorado and across the country. People are refusing to be invisible, coming forward with courage and determination, like those at the vigil. They bravely share their stories and how the for-profit system of detention dehumanizes them and tears their families apart. Allies are listening to their stories and using their privilege to work for change, side by side with immigrants.

For true change to happen, it must be defined by those directly affected. The policy changes necessary to undo the damage done over the last 25 years (really the last 500) will not happen quickly. Real change takes time and takes commitment by everyday people like you and me. In bearing witness to the reality that people like Alma face, by standing with them and understanding how we are a part of the system that renders them invisible, we are working to create a just society where illegal will no longer be a noun, and law is based on respecting the humanity of all those in our society.

By accompanying immigrants in this resistance, we have the opportunity to see with our hearts. Immigrants refusing to be invisible, as well as allies willing to really see and accompany those affected by these policies, can help us to make manifest the invisible, the unseen but palpable, world which recognizes the innate worth and brilliance of every person.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Alma is not this woman’s real name, I changed it to protect her.

** Secure Communities involves local and state authorities in immigration and customs enforcement. The program has encouraged racial profiling, divided families, and eroded basic community trust in law enforcement where implemented.

4th of July

Photo credit Tim Paynter

On the 4th of July 2011 I attended my first Solidarity Vigil, it was held this past Monday in front of the Detention center in Aurora. The Vigil was sponsored by Denver Fair Food, and it was an act of solidarity "...with all who are imprisoned, exploited or enslaved!" This vigil, which took place on the date of the independence of the United States, was symbolic beyond measure. The participants were of a diverse crowd with people from all ages, socio-economic classes and life paths. As we were making our way down the road there was this atmosphere that was charged with the intensity of the present, melancholic memories of the past and bittersweet hopes for the future.

The wind transported our loud, passionate and eager voices in all directions as we chanted "What do we want? JUSTICE, how do we get it? MELT the ICE". We were a sight to behold, because there was a lot of depth and symbolism accompanying the date we chose to go on that vigil. It was evident that we had acknowledged the progressive strides that have been taken in the America, but we also emitted a profound yearning for the amelioration of the conditions of those who have been and are still imprisoned, exploited or enslaved.

The vigil was also a very educational one; Denver Fair Food enacted a short skit that retraced the exploitative and enslaving roots upon which the American system was built, this skit provided us with enough knowledge to understand the gravity of the situation and prompt us to action. We were faced with the realities of America with all its flaws magnified.

The most moving parts of the day included the testimonies of the people, and the beautiful silence that was a silent cry of prayer. The people in the immigrant community who were bold enough to testify included a father, a mother of six who is forced to support her large family by herself, and another mother who has been deprived of her child. The only crimes that these victims can be accused of are the fact that they were born in another country and wanting to provide a better life for their children. Despite all these injustices, I strongly believe that these testimonies demonstrate fearlessness and bravery beyond measure and I wish I had half the courage and internal strength that these heroes have.

The first person who stepped up to speak was the Mexican father of two (a son and daughter) who had been detained in Montana and subsequently released. He tried to relay to us that he is not a criminal and that we need to keep on fighting; all he ever wanted is give a better life to his children and provide them with opportunities he never had. He mentioned how he can take them to the movies and those were things that he was not able to do while he was growing up. He explained the despicable conditions in these detention centers: in one room there were 70 detainees and they had to share five rolls of toilet paper, and they were reprimanded for pointing out that the toilet paper was not sufficient.

This inhumane treatment struck a chord in a Leticia, mother who has seen her son, Sharif only once in eight months, it caused her to wail in anguish and that was one of the hardest things I had to watch in helplessness. Her son was taken at 5:00 am in the Morning shortly after thanksgiving and he was taken to the GEO detention center. Last month he was transferred to Colorado Springs and has been detained there ever since. The third testimony was from a mother of six, two of which are sick and her husband has been detained in the Aurora detention center since March and she is struggling with taking care of her six children. She mentioned how she has been struggling to find a job and how it is hard to find day care.

My first vigil was nothing short of eye-opening and emotionally charged. I would have to say that my favorite part of the whole evening was when we were asked to get close to our neighbors and touch them, close our eyes and just take deep breaths. There was a cool breeze, the sun was setting and the beautiful silence that ensued felt like a silent victory and a promise that the best is yet to come.

- Written by: Fadima Gologo


The next Vigil: United Communities, Living in Freedom.
Monday, August 1st, 2011.
We will meet at 30th Ave & Peoria Street, Aurora, CO.
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Love Knows NO Borders, NO Walls!

Coloradans For Immigrant Rights invites YOU to a Vigil at the immigration detention center!
February 1st, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
At 30TH Avenue & Peoria Street, Aurora, CO
Stand with Our neighbors, Our family, Our community For Justice, Human Rights, Dignity, & Immigration Reform
Sign a Valentine for someone interned, Opening prayer from a surprise religious leader, the lyrical talents of Molina SoLeil & Aju, and an eloquent closing from Maurice Ka!
MONDAY exactly one week BEFORE the Vigil, Join us to MAKE Valentines!
WHERE: Flobots.org Community Space
2705 Larimer St, Denver, CO
WHEN: Monday, Jan 25th, 2010, 6 – 8 pm
Bring Valentine making supplies and a friend!
If you know someone being detained at the Aurora immigrant detention facility, send their NAME, A# & a MESSAGE to jgarcia@afsc.org and we’ll make them a personal Valentine’s card from you!
Please contact Jennifer Piper ( jpiper@afsc.org) or Jordan T Garcia (jgarcia@afsc.org) at 303-623-3464 for more information.
El Amor No Reconoce Fronteras Ni Muros!
Coloradenses por Derechos de Inmigrantes TE INVTIA A una Vigilia enfrente del centro de detención!
1 de Febrero, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
En 30TH Avenue & Peoria Street, Aurora, CO
a Iluminar, Fortalecer , Luchar con Nuestros Vecinos, Familias, y Comunidades,
Por Justicia, Derechos Humanos, Dignidad, y Reforma Migratoria Firme una Tarjeta de San Valentín por alguien detenido, Oración de Apertura por un Líder Religios@, los talentos liricos de Molina SoLeil & Aju, y un discurso elocuente de Maurice Ka!
El LUNES ANTES de la Vigilia, Vengan a crear las tarjetas para los detenidos!
DONDE: Flobots.org Community Space
2705 Larimer St, Denver, CO
CUANDO: LUNES, 25 de Enero, 2010, 6 – 8 pm
Trae materiales para las tarjetas y también invita un amig@!
Si usted conoce a alguien quien esta detenido en el centro de Aurora, mande su NOMBRE, A# & su MENSAGE a jgarcia@afsc.org Y haremos una tarjeta personal de usted a ellos!
Por favor contáctense con Jennifer Piper ( jpiper@afsc.org) en 303-623-3464 por mas información.

Reflections of Solidarity-Seeing that of God in our Neighbors

Week Five Reflection
Daniel Short is a Quaker and former Director of the Human Rights Program at the American Friends Service Committee.

In this week's reflection, excerpted from Seeing that of God in our Neighbors, Danielle explores barriers to seeing that of God in immigrants and how the call to See that of God in Our Neighbors contributes to our own spiritual development.

To read Danielle Short's Seeing that of God in our Neighbors, go to the shrine and light your candle. No registration is necessary to leave a candle or a comment.

Last Week's Reflection

Migration of the Spirit
by Randle Loeb

All of the earliest examples of human collaboration are reckoned by wandering clans that stood on the precipice of death, clinging to the barest thread of survival. Birth and death have always been intricately overlaid and intertwined. There is no escape from the migration of humanity for survival across the rim of the world to the edge of the aboriginal center of the universe. We came out of Africa. Madagascar was the center of the land mass of the world in the beginning and from the floating islands of teeming life Homus Erectus clawed for a place that was safe and abundant to live.

Our claim to places and strategies which lay waste to other competing clans has always been a futile enterprise. There is no thinking in any culture that can make any rhyme or reason of owning land or, for that matter, anything. All wealth belongs inevitably to the earth. We have achieved the rendering of the world into parcels and places, naming the earth and planting a symbol to lay claim to this as my own.

But if one looks at the artificial boundaries, the citadels, the castles, the walls that have been created to hold people in or out it is clear Robert Frost’s reminder, that, “good fences do not make good neighbors,” is exactly right. It is in fact the opposite that is our only means for avoiding extinction. There is no greater imperative than that we share wealth and redistribute this economy everywhere, while at the same time leveling the playing field. Women and men throughout the world are leaving their families today for the purpose of earning remittances and sending this resource home to build the economy in emerging nations. There is one world economy and our interdependence is the only means we have for survival.

When we think about people immigrating from abroad it’s important we realize that we are all related and interrelated from the initial exodus across the continents, 10,000 miles for the purpose of survival, while clinging to a precarious existence. We cannot reign over the earth, the seas, the air and the fire of the world’s inner core. We must harness a will to coexist as a sea of seven billion faces, where half the world will be new children. We must determine how we will rebuild the world for our lives to move forward along the destiny written by the infinite wisdom of creative instinct. We must decide what we will do to share the resources of the earth and harness our technologies to prepare for the new generation and say, “Mr. President, tear down this wall.”
In many nations of the world long ago they understood that limiting people’s rights to passage is a death sentence. In reality, the migration and balance of where people live is not up to anyone. The planning of the migration of people has already changed the major political-social order. We are not the benefactors of the earth’s wealth. The earth still retains rights and always will be our mainstay because we cannot own anything and we cannot possess anyone.

Instead of bickering over whether a child has a right to citizenship, or a right to treatment, or a right to an education, we would be far wiser to learn from these pioneers and voyagers how to better maintain and live together in harmony. Let us hope that when my great grand children are walking around that the earth has opened its gaping mouth to feed all of the young. We can put an end to pestilence, to avarice, to senseless brutality and famine in one fell swoop by expanding our awareness and realizing that all are welcome here, now and forever, no matter what.

Reflections of Solidarity-Migration of the Spirit

JOIN US TODAY, AUGUST 3rd for our Faith Action
at the Detention Center

We will Illuminate, Strengthen, Stand with
Our neighbors, Our family, Our community
For Fairness, Human Rights, Dignity, and Reform,
To Remember and to Witness

DATE: AUGUST 3RD

TIME: 6:00 PM

WHAT: Community for Just and Humane Immigration Reform

Solidarity with our immigrant brother and sisters

WHERE: 30TH Avenue and Peoria Street, Aurora, CO

PARKING: 30th Avenue and Quari Street Aurora, CO

CARPOOL: meet at AFSC offices at 5:00pm

For more information please contact Jennifer Piper at jpiper@afsc.org or 303-623-3464

Week Four Reflection
Randle Loeb is a community minister and chaplain devoted to human rights, spiritual life and ending poverty. He has dedicated his life to working with the homeless and the marginalized.

In this week's reflection, Mr. Loeb asks us to look at the arc of history and the deep rooted causes of migration, both of spirit and of body.

To read Randle Loeb's Migration of Spirit, go to the shrine and light your candle. No registration is necessary to leave a candle or a comment.

Last Week's Reflection

Right now in America, a major employer is disrupted, its workforce cut by the hundreds or thousands. And a detention camp holds people without access to our usual rights and liberties.

But, the employees will not be laid off because of the recession. There are no terrorists in this camp; it’s not in Cuba, & President Obama has not ordered it to be closed.

Losing their jobs, being held without rights are America’s undocumented immigrants – our country’s mixed multitude.

Postville Iowa does not stand alone – it is a microcosm of a larger problem across our land. I want to invite you to help teach Torah and change policy as part of the JCA’s “Progress by Pesach” campaign – to end, within the first hundred days of the new Obama administration, the destructive immigration enforcement raids begun under the previous administration.

How does this tie to what we’ve been reading in Shmot?

Rewind: 3000 years ago, it was much the same – a pivotal time of change. In our first hundred days as a people, we left Egypt with a mixed multitude, crossed the Sea of Reeds, and encamped at Mount Sinai. The next ten months at Sinai will establish:

• a judiciary, courtesy of Jethro,
• laws and policies, from G-d
• a tabernable, built by the people to G-d specs
• and a functioning community

In this week’s parsha, T’Tzavveh, we get detailed instructions for building the Mishkan, a visible structure for G-d’s presence among the people and for swearing in Aaron as the Cohen-General. Aaron will sport the ephod, a breastplate set with semi-precious gems representing each of the twelve tribes and inscribed “Holy to the Lord”, to reminding him of his role representing the children of Israel before G-d.

And who is missing?

The first missing person is our new leader. T’Tzavveh is the only parsha, from Shmot forward, that omits our leader – Moses. Many commentators say that Moses’s absence is to leave room for Aaron. But perhaps, we should see Moses’ absence as leaving room for the our responsible involvement in making decision and a warning against rely on any one leader to fix our problems. Finally, Moses’s absence in this parsha makes us think of the seder haggadah and the invitation for you to join us for the JCA Freedom Seder at 3PM on Sunday March 22 at Mt. Zion Temple.

Also missing are the strangers among us. Etz Chaim commentary describes “a mixed multitude” of “varied groups of forced laborers…” who left Egypt with us. Since then, more strangers have joined us on our journey, coming to live and work with us. Yet these strangers may not share our culture, our religion, or even our language. So, how will we, this new people emerging at Sinai, treat the strangers among us?

G-d could have instructed the people: “When you reach the promised land, erect strong walls at your borders, to keep out the strangers, the non-believers, the others; that your jobs shall remain only with your people and that different ways shall not come amidst the community of Israel.”

Instead the Torah paints exactly the opposite vision: we are expected to live in an open land, in successful communities that will, in all likelihood, attract strangers who are different than us.

All great societies do this – attract, and even invite strangers to join us, to work amongst us.

Ancient Egypt began this way. The Joseph saga culminates with Pharoah’s invitation to the children of Israel to come to Egypt to settle and to work in the land of Goshen. And they can have those smelly, menial jobs that cultured Egyptians won’t do: being shepherds.

400 years later, the children of Israel multiplied into hundreds of thousands. But, changing, wiser, cagier government policy enslaved and oppressed them. Families were ripped apart, literally, as children were separated from parents and drowned in the Nile.

The Torah gives us a reminder - one commandment, one reminder, for every 11 years of suffering in captivity in Egypt: Not just once or twice, but 36 times, in the most repeated commandment in Torah, we are taught about our obligation to the stranger and the vulnerable:

I won’t read all 36 to you. Here is a sampling
In Shmot, in Mishpatim we learn:

“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” [Exodus 23: 9]

In Va-Yikra, in K’doshim, we learn:

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt…” Leviticus 19:33-34

So a summary of the Torah’s immigration laws still resonates today:

• Don’t enslave strangers.
• Don’t wrong strangers.
• Don’t oppress strangers.
• Treat strangers with respect and compassion.
• Provide strangers who accept our ways a pathway to citizenship and integration into our society

And the irony of history or divine plan was that for thousands of years, our people have been the immigrants, the strangers, the vulnerable resident aliens in the midst of other nations. Will we remember the feelings of our families, and of similar families today --- the feelings and the desperation that impelled them to move when times and places became untenable?

Fast-forward all the way to the present: Wealthy, safe first-world societies still attract and invite strangers to live and work amongst us – filling the menial, tough jobs we don’t want.

In the United States, our current harsh and unrealistic immigration policies push over 50% of our immigrants to come here without documents, with total numbers swelling to over 12 million people.

Have you detected these immigrants? Have you seen the rebuilt stores and the vibrant community rebuilding on Lake Street? Have you heard “Oprime ocho par espagnol” on a menu? I’m sure you haven’t personally oppressed any strangers. Maybe you even tipped a Somali cab-driver or the Hispanic maid in your hotel. So you are in the clear – right?

But in reality, our communal response to immigrants is quite different than how we would act as individuals. And over time, our policies have become increasing harsh and inhumane.

Today, there is no pathway to citizenship for our undocumented, mixed multitude of 12 million strangers. Everyone knows that we cannot deport 12 million people – can you imagine any system that could extract 12 million men women and children from our communities, their jobs, their homes and their schools? And if we could imagine a horror on this scale, would we think it a wise use of our money or an ethical way to treat our neighbors?

While our past administration knew that it couldn’t deport all the undocumented, it felt it could crank up immigration enforcement, creating a small-scale symbolic deportation system. First it convinced Congress we had a security issue – we wouldn’t hunt down ordinary undocumented immigrants, but we surely needed to track down the criminals living among us. Funding and arrest quotas were increased – and the nominally sounding “fugitive operations program” began in 2003.

The numbers?
The policy of mass workplace and neighborhood raids arrested strangers at a rate of 20,000 per year. At this rate, it will take just 600 years to deport all the undocumented immigrants. I didn’t say to deport all the criminals - because we aren’t catching them. Our prior administration, through executive policy choices, redirected this program away from hunting the small percentage of truly dangerous criminals to achieving those expanded arrest quotas. Almost ¾ of the 100,000 people rounded up in the past 5 years are undocumented immigrants with no criminal record.

And the workers?
Federal teams have surrounded workplaces and neighborhoods. The workers caught in the raids are engine re-manufacturers in Washington, meatpackers in Minnesota and Iowa, and others. They will be arrested for civil immigration violations – not for criminal offenses.

And the detention camps?
Surely our people and our country have seen enough of these…
From mass arrests and conveyor belt justice, the immigrants are moved to detention camps, part of a large gulag across our country, housing 33,000 immigrants on any given day and where 80 immigrants have died while in custody since 2005.

And the families?
Like the instructions of Pharoah, we have separated families: husbands from wives and children, some US citizens, from their parents. We have disrupted neighborhoods and workplaces, sowing fear and confusion among immigrant communities. We move those arrested to far those away detention facilities, keeping key details of their whereabouts from their families and their communities.

To read more go to Progress by Pesach

Reflections of Solidarity-The Mother of An Immigrant

Last week, Don Juan Manuel Patraca shared one of his many amazing poems with us. In it, he shares the emotions of an immigrant and the love that sustains him even in his isolation. To read last week's reflection, scroll down.

Week Three Reflection, Rabbi Leonard Oppenheimer's D'Var Torah

In this week's reflection, Rabbi Oppenheimer discusses the historical context of the Torah's commandments on how to interact with immigrants and how those commandments are still relevant today.

"The Torah gives us a reminder - one commandment, one reminder, for every 11 years of suffering in captivity in Egypt: Not just once or twice, but 36 times, in the most repeated commandment in Torah, we are taught about our obligation to the stranger and the vulnerable"

To read the rest of, and leave a response to, Rabbi's Oppenhiemer's D'Var Torah go to the shrine and light your candle. No registration is necessary to leave a candle or a comment.

Last Week's Reflection
*English follows Spanish
Lo Siguiente fue escrito por Juan Manuel Patraca y esta reproducido de su libro “32 Biografías para Gente Sencilla” con su permisión. Todos sus poesías son escritos en Ingles y Español.

The following was written by Juan Mauel Patraca and was copied, with his permission, from his book "32 Biographies of Humble People". All his poetry is in both Spanish and English.

"La Madre de un Inmigrante-The Mother of an Immigrant"

Madre
Te inscribo estas líneas, espero estés bien, día a día
Hoy, como inmigrante estoy en este país extraño.
Añoro y siento la nostalgia de tu sonrisa
De tus religiosos “bueno días” y tacto de la bondad de tus manos.

Madre
Como inmigrante; tú no sabes cuan, vulnerable estoy y extraño
Tu mirada; que siempre me regalabas cristalina y bondadosa,
Tu filosofía y sapiencia de tantos años acumulados.
Tu filantropía, que das al moribundo hermano; dispuesta.

Madre
En este inmigrante-país me despierto y despliego la pereza,
Con fe e insuperable fervor, doy gracias a mi bondadoso dios;
Por volverme en sí, de mi muerte prematura.
Pero, sobre todo por ser molécula de su sangre y corazón.

Madre
Acá; como incontables inmigrantes, vivo en destierro y mucho miedo
He sufrido; discriminación, hambre, sed, granizo, lluvia y nieve.
En ese momento esta tu mirada angelical, que jamás olvido;
Flaqueo y tu cual martillo golpeas y mi voluntad la mueves.

Madre
Gracias mil; por tus buenos deseos, bendiciones por ser como eres
Te veo en tus domésticos quehaceres, percibo tu mirada prodigiosa.
Eres un faro inextinguible, estando en la cordillera de Everest,
Ángel, que apareces en mis sueños; rezo, te veo como una diosa.

Madre
Desconozco, que futuro espero adverso, como tantos inmigrantes;
Menos aun sé; si en este país, moriré pobre, miserable, o rico.
Cabal; yo sé, si olvido de usted, (10,000 veces) perverso seré.
Moriría en paz, porque de una humilde mujer mexicana fui hijo.
______________________________________________________________

Mother
I write you these lines hoping you are well from day to day
I find myself today as an immigrant in this strange country.
I feel and long for the nostalgia of your smile,
Your religious “Buenos días” the tactful goodness in your hands.

Mother
As an immigrant, you cannot know how vulnerable and awash I am.
I miss your gaze, crystalline and gracious around my shoulders.
The wisdom, culled from your many gathered years,
Your selflessness, every present at the side of my moribund brother.

Mother
In this immigrants-country I struggle to wake and expand myself every morning.
With faith and fervor I give thanks to god’s goodness
For returning me from an early death
But above all, for being flesh, and heart of your heart.

Mother
Here, like countless immigrants, I live in exile and fear.
I have suffered discrimination, hunger, thirst, rain, snow and hail
In those moments it was only your angelic sight that I did not forget.
When I stumble, like a hammer, you strike my will to fight and I walk on.

Mother
A thousand thanks for your good wishes, blessings, for being who you are.
I see you moving to the rhythm of daily life, pervaded by your grace
You are a torch on my path to Everest
An angel that appears in my dreams and prayers.

Mother
Like so many immigrants I cannot know the hard future that awaits me,
If I dies in this country be it poor, miserable or rich,
(How I will be damned, 10,000 times over, if I forget you)
I know that I will die in peace, because I was the son of a humble Mexican woman.

Reflections of Solidarity-What does love mean?

Last week, Reverend Dunlap searched for the biblical meaning of love at the Reflections of Solidarity shrine. Her reflection is posted below. As I read it, I was inspired to work towards policies that reflect love. I also thought about how I might embody love in my everyday life and actions, even when I'm tired or lacking energy.

Week Two Reflection, Don Juan Patraca
This week's reflection comes from Don Juan Manuel Patraca and is up at the shrine. His poetry describes trial and tribulation and answers whether love can stand the test of time and distance, whether love can sustain us through the worst of times and make us better people. In his poem La madre de un inmigrante-The mother of an immigrant Don Patraca begins this way:

Mother
I write you these lines hoping you are well from day to day
I find myself today as an immigrant in this strange country.

To read the rest and light your candle go to the shrine.

Week One Reflection, Pastor Anne Dunlap

Leviticus 19:34 "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."

Let’s cut to the chase: What, exactly, is loving about the way we treat “the alien” among us – the immigrant, the foreigner, the non-native who has left her/his own land because of war, starvation, disease, desperation, and travels to another in hopes to make a better life for her/his family (the meaning of the original Hebrew in this text)?

What, exactly, is loving about building steel walls across a borderline with the express intent to force migrants into the desert, sure that their deaths will be a deterrent to future migration?

What, exactly, is loving about slashing water bottles and shooting water tanks left for migrants so that they won’t die of thirst?

What, exactly, is loving about exploiting immigrant labor by neglecting to pay workers, by not providing for workplace safety, by threatening workers with deportation if they try to organize?

What, exactly, is loving about police harassment of families who contribute to the well-being of our communities?

What, exactly, is loving about workplace and home ICE raids that terrorize hard-working communities, that rip families apart, disappearing partners and parents into a detention system that provides for careless representation of immigrants at best, and no representation at worst? What is loving about leaving children behind with no support, wondering if they will ever see their parents again?

What, exactly, is loving about any of this?

This verse from Leviticus sums up the preponderance of biblical opinion regarding how faithful followers of God’s way are meant to treat the “alien:” just like yourself. The non-citizen should be treated just like the citizen, and be treated with love.

The ways in which God’s vision for the treatment of immigrants differs from current US reality – both in terms of policy and in terms of anti-immigrant sentiment and violence – is vast and hardly in need of repeating here. For those of us who are trying to be faithful to God’s way, God’s vision of communities filled with justice, dignity, and love, the reminder to “love the ‘alien’ as you love yourself” should be the touchstone of our work in solidarity with the immigrant community. For the person of faith, the question is not “What is legal and expedient?” but “What is faithful?”

And the answer to that question is always love.

Let us pray for comprehensive immigration reform that embodies love for the immigrant.

Rev. Anne Dunlap
Pastor, Comunidad Liberación/Liberation Community

Faith Action at The Immigrant Detention Center

Online Solidarity
Today we launched weekly online solidarity reflections. Each Monday we'll post a new reflection.

Today's was written by Reverend Anne Dunlap, Pastor of Liberation Community. Follow the link to read the reflection and light your candle.

Faith Action at the Detention Center
35 people met tonight at the corner of 30th and Peoria. The immigrant detention center is just up the street on 30th.

We meet the first Monday of each month to remember the brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and neighbors being detained inside. We pray for their families

We meet to pray for our congresspeople and the president that they might find the courage to enact just and humane immigration reform.

We pray for ourselves, that we find a way to challenge the system that criminalizes and splits our communities.

Tonight Sue and Gene Lefevbre from No More Deaths Spoke

Their stories told of increasing death on our border and indifference by our government. Two of their volunteers have been charged and convicted of leaving water for migrants crossing the desert and for picking up trash while doing so. The crime they were convicted of was littering. U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials were the ones to ticket them on national parkland in Arizona.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has so far refused to meet with No More Deaths. No More Deaths has invited them to meet and wokr out a plan to keep trash down in the national park and also decrease deaths.

97 people have died alreayd this year in Arizona alone. More than 5,000 people have died crossing our border in the last 10 years. Our policies there don't keep our desperate neighbors from trying to cross. Our policies don't save lives, they end them.

Since the 1990s we've increased the walls and checkpoints along border cities and pushed people into the hottest most deadliest part of the border. They die there. Women, children, men. Of thirst.

No More Deaths saves lives. You can help by supporting No More Deaths with:

• first aid kits and food kits
• money
• letters
  

The Next Faith Action
August 3rd
6:00pm
30th avenue and Peoria Street, Aurora, CO
email Jennifer Piper for carpool or other information

HUNGER STRIKE SOLIDARITY VIGIL

On Friday, May 30, at 12:00 pm, Colorado Jobs with Justice will have a vigil to show solidarity with "guest" workers from India who are engaged in a hunger strike in Washington DC. We will also discuss similar cases of human trafficking happening in Colorado. Read about one case here. More info about this local action will be posted here soon. For more information about the hunger strikers, visit the hunger strike blog here. This is day nine of the strike and there has already been one hospitalization. Keep these courageous workers in your thoughts.

Action:TONIGHT

Fuerza Latina in Fort Collins has organized an amazing vigil and rally tonight at 6:30pm to support human rights such as those of activist Elvira Arellano. If you are interested in carpooling we'll leave at 4:oo pm from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition's offices. Please contact Gina Millan at 303-893-3500.

Below is a strong op ed in the Fort Collins paper, the Coloradoan, which discusses the need for reform and invites people out to the vigil.

Those facing deportation are people
Kimberly Baker Medina

"Just as they have beaten at my door, they are beating at the door of thousands, forcefully separating children and parents and causing terror and suffering .... I believe in my heart that the people of this nation do not have hate in their hearts, they don't want to destroy our lives, our families and our communities. I accept what God has sent me to accept. But I ask of my community ... to join together with me and ask that we walk together for our dignity. I ask everyone of conscience and good will to join with us... the 12th of September."

These words were written by Elvira Arrellano, from the Chicago church where she sought sanctuary for a year to avoid deportation and separation from her son, a U.S. citizen. When she left the church in August to promote Sept. 12 as a day to speak out against deportations, she was arrested and deported, leaving her son behind.

Elvira's arrest is significant not because it is unusual, but because it is common, even here, in Larimer County. Locally, authorities send about 30 people monthly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Since the beginning of 2006, about 10,000 people in Colorado have been processed for deportation. Every person deported leaves someone behind.

David couldn't get his baby girl to eat after ICE took his wife. His three U.S. citizen children, a 6-month old breastfeeding baby, a 2- and a 5-year old, were crying and looking for their mother, who was deported two days after her arrest, without saying goodbye to her children.

Harriet, an 80-year-old widow, lost her granddaughter and two great-granddaughters when her grandson-in-law was deported and his family accompanied him. Before his deportation, Harriet looked forward to their daily visits. Now, she spends her days alone, missing her girls.

Lisa's husband was turned over to ICE for a broken taillight after living here for 13 years. As Lisa and her 7-year-old son, both U.S. citizens, packed up daddy's things, her son couldn't stop crying. "I don't want my daddy to go to Mexico," he sobbed.

A person is no less human because she or he lacks immigration papers. Deportations destroy children and families and communities. The people deported in our community are your neighbors, co-workers, members of your church and your children's playmates. The majority have committed no crime other than to have no immigration papers. They came here to escape persecution or hunger, or to unite with family. They become part of our communities, our families and our economy.

Current immigration laws do little more than cause suffering and injustice. They don't allow people to enter legally to work or be with family, or legalize their status. We must stop punishing families for dysfunctional laws and devise an immigration system that works for families and for America.

Fuerza Latina, together with families, faith and community organizations, will have a vigil at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Old Town Square in honor of Elvira and all families. Please join us.

Kimberly Baker Medina is an immigration attorney and a volunteer with Fuerza Latina. All of the people mentioned above are local residents of whom she has personal knowledge, whose names have been changed for privacy reasons. For more information about the vigil, contact Javier at 297-8951.

Denver Post covers Elvira's Vigil

Manny Gonzales (mgonzales@denverpost.com) wrote an excellent article covering the vigil for Elvira last night at the Iliff School of theology. It might be nice to drop Manny a nice email thanking him for a thoughtful and compelling story. Here is a quote:

"There are still a lot of people here who haven't heard of Elvira Arellano or her plight, but they know how this country's immigration policy has created a climate of fear for families in Colorado," said one of the vigil's organizers, Danielle Short, human rights program director for American Friends Service Committee.

If you click on the above link you'll see some comments on the Denver Post webpage, some that are supportive and others that are not. Free free to add your thoughts on this site as well.

Here are a few extra pictures from last night. Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

Support Elvira Arellano and Continue

Prayer Vigil to Denounce Elvira Arellano’s Deportation and Celebrate Her Courage
She Inspires Us to Continue!

WHEN: Tonight Wednesday, August 22
TIME: 6:00pm
WHERE: Iliff School of Theology
Parking in the Iliff lot on Iliff just West of University Blvd.
(use the intercom to say you’re there for this event to be let in)

We invite you to come to show your solidarity with Elvira Arellano and all of the other families in risk of separation because of our inhumane immigration system!

We will come together to offer prayers and gather strength for the road ahead.

Co-sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Coloradans for Immigrant Rights, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, HS Power and Light, and Iliff School of Theology among others.

Activist Elvira Arellano Arrested and Deported

Immigration Control and Enforcement arrested Sra. Arellano as she was leaving a speaking event. She had been taking sanctuary in a church since last August with her son. Sra. Arellano decided it was time for her to leave that sanctuary in order to build momentum for a vigil in D.C. which will happen on September 12th.

Her arrest in front of her son and subsequent separation from him make me angry and sad. Elvira Arellano is a truly inspiring leader for human rights. She has risked her family and her livelihood to tell the truth about what it is like to be an immigrant in the United States.

While the anti-immigrant movement celebrates what they believe to be a defeat, I know that this vigil will gain momentum and power because of her sacrifice. I hope that she inspires all of us who are allies to realize how little we risk in the pursuit of justice and to do more.

There is a poll about her case and the plight of undocumented immigrants here. Please consider taking the poll. Write letters to the editor. And stay tuned for details on upcoming actions.

Please call the local Field Office to protest her arrest and deportation
Field Office Director, Denver
4730 Paris Street
Denver, CO 80239
Phone: 303-371-1067 or 5606
Area of Responsibility: Colorado, Wyoming

Come out to the Vigil Tonight

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is calling us to come out for a vigil tonight. The papers are saying 48 people were arrested in State Patrol round ups today, including a baby. Let's show support for the families who were driving today and those who've been left behind. It's time to decry the erosion of our civil liberties and the boundaries between federal and local police forces.

This is an opportunity to lift our ally voices and use them to speak in solidarity with those detained.

Come out and participate!

When: TONIGHT, August 1, 2007, 8PM

Where: Denver Inner City Parish

1212 Mariposa St.; Denver, CO

CIRC Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Contacts: Chandra Russo, 720-273-2022 Jordan Garcia 303-919-8798

ICE-Deputized State Patrol Terrorizes Immigrant Families
Colorado Advocates Demand Real Solutions,
Not Police-State Tactics

Prayer Vigil in Denver Tonight to Support Affected Families

(Denver, CO) On Tuesday, Colorado State Patrol officers arrested 48 immigrants on I-70 near the Eisenhower Tunnel in a concentrated round-up of immigrant families. The 48 included an infant identified as a U.S. citizen. The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), a statewide alliance of over 80 organizations working to defend and advance the rights of immigrants, demands an end to law enforcement tactics which terrorize communities and violate civil liberties.

"It just seems as if we have become a police state," says Sister Nancy Crafton of Centro de los Pobres in Avondale, CO. "Our families are terrified. . .terrified. . .to go anywhere, even down the street. We are seeing a complete erosion of due process in this country."

"This round-up by State Patrol raises serious questions about who is being targeted for immigration questioning," adds Danielle Short of the American Friends Service Committee. "Regardless of who has traffic violations, certain races and ethnicities are clearly more vulnerable here."

"It is a sad day to see the state of Colorado using the very limited resources it has to enforce federal immigration laws,"says Eddie Soto of Compañeros in Durango. "Our law-makers in Washington do not have the guts to tackle this issue and use our precious tax-dollars which should be spent on education and health care."