Parents, Clergy and Educators take note! "Listen to the Children" is the perfect intro book for you.

I heard great things about the book "Listen to the Children: Conversations with Immigrant Families" and so decided it was time to read it for myself.

First of all, the book is bilingual; one half in Spanish, the other in English! This is a great bonus making it possible to have discussion and share the resource bi-culturally. It's simply and directly written and is a great tool for adults who want to help kids prepare for:

• a parent's absence
• moving to a new country
• a new school
  

The author, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, provides illuminating examples of conversations and situations families might face. I felt guided through how to shift these conversations in ways that empower children and families to love and respect one another. She sees the whole community (faith communities, teachers, extended family, and friends) as key to children's health. I also really appreciated her tips on talking with kids in an age appropriate way.

While the book was written to highlight children's issues, it also helped me keep in mind all of the challenges, strengths, hopes and dream immigrant parents carry with them. "Listen to the Children" provides tips for parents on how to get what they need from schools and faith communities as well. It encourages them to reach out to the larger community for advice, and to share their experiences with other immigrant families.

Conde-Frazier demonstrates how biblical stories can be a source of strength for children whose family's status is precarious. She touches on the capacity of the faith community to support families in the wake of enforcement actions and the importance of a safe and open place for families and children. Most of all I appreciated her treatment of the issues that impact immigrant families regardless of status; identity, education, justice, dignity.

I look forward to more from Conde-Frazier and hope that she can give us a more in-depth treatment of each of the areas she covered in this intro book, providing us with more culturally sensitive bilingual tools on parenting, integration and respect.

The book is in our library of resources now at AFSC, so please stop by to check it out!

ICE Cold Hearts...Melted!

by Jordan T Garcia

On Monday, February 14th, 2011 at the Aurora Immigrant Detention Center, 475 handmade Valentines were delivered to 450 people unjustly interned by the state. An additional 50 cards were handed out to day laborers in Aurora. Thanks to you!

I spoke with a woman named Patricia in the detention center waiting area, as she waited to be allowed to see her husband and the father of her 3 year old before he signed his voluntary departure for his deportation. Her fierce strength gripped me in the moments she shared her struggle to explain to her daughter Alicia that she didn’t do anything wrong to keep her father away on Valentine’s day.

Later yesterday morning, Pedro, a carpenter and Day Laborer from Aurora, tucked a Valentine made by a 7 year old Bella inside his pocket. Among sheepish grins and somewhat deriding chuckles from fellow day laborers, though none were too shy to take a homemade Valentine of thier own, he explained. His son, in Oaxaca, was about the same age when Pedro left to come to the US four years ago to send money home to his parents, now raising his kids.

The Valentines you made touched hearts and shared strength. We are all made more whole knowing these stories of fierce love and unforgettable power.

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.

~ Che Guevara

Many people have told us that this Valentine project provided them with an opportunity to not only be creative, but also to be self reflective. To set aside feelings of frustration about political posturing and to put what LOVE they could into a simple beautiful card. To take just an hour or so to think about the experiences of immigrants in this country and to focus on the reasons we struggle for immigrant justice day in and day out.
A special thank you to all of the Valentine Artists, including but not limited to Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, Metro Organization for People, Melissa Nix, Nicki Gonzales & Tania Valenzulea and the Regis University Social Justice Students, Maria and the students at the Iliff School of Theology, Sister Alicia and St. Mary's Academy and Escuela de Guadelupe students, Harriet Mullaney’s English classes at Bruce Randolph School, and the attendants of Yolotzin (1st!) & Yvonne Sandoval’s birthday party. And another special thank you to Seth Donovan for making the arrangements with the Detention Center Staff.

On February 7th, 2011, over 150 hundred people gathered at the Aurora Detention Center to make their voices heard. The February monthly vigil was planned by Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, a project of AFSC and the Denver Justice and Peace Committee.
We invited Suzi Q Smith, a spoken word artist and slam poet whose poem is copied below, along with other poets such as Homero Ocon who shared their beautiful pieces. DJPC shared broken hearts concerning the roots of migration and participants shared the ways they will mend hearts in their own lives. We sang some love songs and chanted to the people interned inside.

We carried signs with our message including a large broken heart symbolizing how our broken immigration system keeps the United States apart from the rest of the world and the broken hearts of those families separated by borders and walls.

Some of the Valentine’s read like this: Dear Valentine, You are not alone. I hold you in my heart, thoughts and prayers. Love knows no borders or walls and together we can share each other’s strength and courage. I am with you in spirit on this Valentine’s Day. No estas sol@. Est@s presente en mi corazón, mis pensamientos y mis oraciones. El amor no reconoce fronteras ni muros. Juntos podemos compartir nuestr@ fuerza y valor. Mi espíritu está contigo en este Día de San.

Arizona vigilante found guilty of murdering Latino man, daughter

By the CNN Wire Staff
February 15, 2011 2:04 a.m. EST
(CNN) -- An Arizona jury on Monday convicted anti-illegal immigration activist Shawna Forde of murder in the killing of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter during a 2009 vigilante raid she led on their home.
The Pima County jury convicted Forde on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child's mother, Gina Gonzales, at the family's rural Arivaca home on May 30, 2009.
The child and her father were American-born U.S. citizens.
The jury also convicted Forde on two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of burglary, armed robbery and aggravated robbery.
The jury is scheduled to return Tuesday for the penalty phase of the trial.
Forde's alleged accomplices, Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, are scheduled to go on trial later this year.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Forde as the ringleader of the hit squad, and said she had planned the raid and the murders to steal weapons, money and drugs to finance a new anti-illegal immigration outfit.
The trio picked the Flores home, prosecutors said, because of a claim made by Gaxiola they would find drugs there.
While Flores had a history of drug-related offenses, none were found in the house.
Posing as border patrol and law enforcement officers, Forde, Gaxiola and Bush, whom prosecutors identified as the gunman, showed up at the Flores home after midnight, several hours after the family had returned from a shopping trip in Tucson to buy shoes for their daughter for summer camp.
Brisenia Flores was sleeping on the couch with her puppy when the killers demanded to be let into the home. They accused Flores of harboring illegal aliens and said the house was surrounded by agents.
Once inside, the gunman shot Flores in the chest and Gonzales in the leg. Later Brisenia was shot as she pleaded for her life.
Jewelry taken from the Flores home was later found in Forde's possession. Text messages discovered on her phone also implicated her in the crime.
Forde once belonged to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps before she was removed for what former fellow members described as unstable behavior, according to news reports.
Forde then formed a splinter group, Minutemen aAmerican Defense. She led protests against illegal immigration and patrolled the Arizona-Mexico border armed with weapons.
Bush was the group's national director of operations, according to reports.

http://us.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/14/arizona.double.killing.verdict/index.html?hpt=T2

AFSC Responds to Violence against Those in Public Life

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization committed to overcoming violence in communities throughout the U.S. and around the world, is deeply saddened by the violence of January 8, 2011, in Tucson, Arizona, when an attempt to kill U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords brought death and injury to so many.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all victims of the shooting, as well as their families and friends who are now mourning the deceased and anxiously awaiting the recovery of the injured. As Friends say, we are holding them in the Light.

In our work for peace, we have seen how each act of violence hurts not only the immediate victims, but tears at the fabric of entire communities. In the wake of such a senseless violation, everyone in Tucson will struggle to feel secure, to regain trust for each other, and to work together to move forward. Our hearts
go out to all in Tucson today.

Today’s strident political atmosphere escalates tension and helps to set the stage for incidents like this one. Our world is increasingly swept up in a tide of intolerance. We are all too accepting when political and spiritual leaders use rhetoric that demonizes those with different beliefs; when those who should call us to higher purpose, instead, contribute to an atmosphere that provokes the most vulnerable, disturbed among us to acts of vandalism, violence, and assassination. We all must take responsibility for correcting a political climate that has become so polarized and vitriolic.

It is not an accident that this tragic shooting took place in Arizona, where punitive laws and anti-immigrant scapegoating have only resulted in misunderstanding and divisiveness in our borderlands. These laws have brought us no closer to creating humane, workable policies that respect the rights and needs of those living on either side of the border. This is but one example of how our nation’s divisive rhetoric works against developing effective solutions to society’s pressing needs.

What would help us move forward?

The American Friends Service Committee urges our elected officials, spiritual leaders and community leaders to commit now to act with civility and common purpose to heal our society. Real healing goes beyond civil words and tamped-down rhetoric and looks to the root causes of violence in our society, the conditions of inequality and injustice. A political culture devoted to honestly and reasonably addressing those conditions would be a healthier one for all of us.

We call on national, state, and local leaders to respond with compassion to the needs and aspirations of those who have been disenfranchised by the political system and excluded from the economic recovery. This is a time to fulfill the promise of “justice for all.” This is a time for leadership towards “a more perfect
union.”
January 10, 2011

The DREAM shall never die

Reflections on Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the DREAM Act

By CFIR memberMark O'Brien

Proponents of the DREAM Act failed to gain the 60 votes needed for a cloture vote in the U.S. Senate in order to end a filibuster on the Bill.

This of course was a major disappointment for millions of individuals who were hoping that the DREAM Act would pass in the Congress. The prevailing view was that the DREAM Act had a low chance of successfully passing in the Senate despite a courageous victory in the House.

It may seem like this is the end for the DREAM Act at least until the 2012 elections. However, this is just the beginning. While the Legislation failed to gain the necessary votes in the Senate, the DREAM is still alive! As Senator Edward Kennedy stated at the Democratic National Convention in 2008:

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the DREAM shall never die…

December 20th marked the 5th anniversary of H.R. 4437, otherwise known as the Sensenbrenner Bill that passed in the House. This highly punitive legislation would have made it, among other things, a felony to be in the United States undocumented. The Sensenbrenner Bill was a wake-up call for people of all races, colors and creeds to come together and unite against the hard-hearted nature of such legislation.

Almost immediately, individuals and organizations started to mobilize and an awakening began that brought together communities across the nation. People mobilized and engaged in organizing, outreach and service. Folks from all walks of life rose up to say NO to the Sensenbrenner Bill and the hostile tone that was taking shape in the United States towards immigrants.

The energy and enthusiasm was palpable as communities came together through the bond of peace. There was a tremendous amount of organizing, meeting with legislators and their staff, working on messaging, framing and advocacy. We took sharp, decisive action and did not rest or let up during the Christmas holiday break, and by the time Congress returned, the momentum took them off guard. The Sensenbrenner Bill died in the Senate.

The momentum culminated in March 2006 with rallies across the country that drew 50,000 to 150,000 people. In Denver, a March 25, 2006 rally at Civic Center Park drew an estimated 75,000 people. This was extraordinary given that organizers had met 3 days before and thought that there might be 5,000 people in attendance. But the word went out and then suddenly, when all the forces came together in a singular moment, there was an outpouring that came forth like a river. As I drove into town, streams of individuals, families and groups came from all directions towards Civic Center Park. There were people coming from everywhere and I recall telling a friend on the cell phone, who had asked how I thought the rally would go, "hold on...something is happening-something is breaking lose". This was confirmed when I got close to downtown, parked and joined the procession of people heading to the Park. The presence, power and energy of this gathering was effervescent, there was a joyfulness among the crowd. The morning gave way to a celebration of community and an inspiring presentation. No one there that day will forget, nor should forget, the beauty of the experience.

Over the past 5 years a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy has gone into Comprehensive Immigration Reform. From the McCain-Kennedy Bill to the DREAM Act, there has been an enormous amount of debate, argument, demonstration and lobbying regarding this issue. There has been many promises from politicians who have been, at best, ineffectual in providing genuine leadership on immigration reform. The economic crisis has certainly not helped this situation.

Along with other Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, the DREAM Act was a parallel effort to provide an opportunity for children, teenagers and young adults, brought to the U.S. with their parents, an opportunity to come from the shadows and be able to work, attend school, join the military and have a path towards legal residency, and the potential to become a permanent resident and/or U.S. Citizen.

The fact that the DREAM Act failed to pass in the Congress is a great disappointment to many and will impose difficult hardships on folks who are undocumented, but it cannot be overstated that this is just the beginning of what will be a very challenging road ahead and we will need to press on toward the goal by working together and staying united in one vision, mission and purpose. We will need to work hard and sacrificially with deliberate intent on CIR and a new DREAM Act.

We need to hearken back to those who came before us and have provided an example to follow. I think of Martin Luther King and how many years he and millions labored, and still labor, for Human Rights. I think of Gandhi and the peace movement in India and how it influenced Dr. King and peace movements around the world. I think of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers movement and his efforts that began in the 1950s. I think of Dorothy Day and the many that advocated for immigrants rights in the late 19th and early 20th century. I think of my own father who worked tirelessly for immigrant rights beginning with Dorothy Day in the 1940s and with Cesar Chavez in the 1950s before the United Farm Workers existed. I think about 'the long journey' fighting against the abuse and exploitation of the Bracero Program and picketing in California during the 'Don't Eat the Grapes' strikes. These were long, hard battles that lasted many years and required extraordinary sacrifice.

The main thing is this : The experience over the past 5 years has shown how a communities can come together with a shared vision to advocate for the cause of justice and Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We will not waiver in our commitment and we will stand together in unity willing to sacrifice time and time again until we achieve our common goal. But even when we do achieve this goal we must remember the words of Senator Edward Kennedy when he said...

One of the great lessons I have learned from a life in politics is that no reform is ever truly complete. We must constantly keep moving forward, seeking ways to create that more perfect union..

We must continue and intensify our work to manifest what Martin Luther King, Jr. named "The beloved community."

In addition, I am reminded of a quote that I hears a few years back which was: "the difference between peacemaking and activism is that peacemaking is transformational". So, as we go forth, let us also be peacemakers in the pursuit of just immigration policy, because in addition to our activism; it is peacemaking that is transformational and ultimately what brings about true and lasting change.

Let us love and serve one another, encouraging each other as long as today is called today, remembering that

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the DREAM shall never die…

Peace and Love,

Mark