July 2012:  Keep up the Momentum! July 25th Webinar on Detention Visitation & More!

Dear Immigrant Justice Leaders,

At Justice General Assembly we got ourselves organized to continue our ministry for migrant justice.  The next step of course is taking it home and stopping ‘Arizonification’ across the country and building solidarity with immigrant communities in every region.  This issue has next steps and resources for you to do just that!

1) TOMORROW, Wednesday Night (July 25th):  Join Our Webinar on Breaking the Isolation of Immigration Detention

Wednesday, July 25, 2012 at 8pm EST: More than 34,000 people are detained in the U.S. daily, and nearly 400,000 passed through the system every year, without regard to whether they are recently-arrived, asylum-seekers, or long-time residents. Learn how to start a visitation program with information from other successful programs that have  resulted in hundreds of visits to detained immigrant and asylum-seeking women in the past year. This webinar will be led by Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership, an organization that works with communities across the country to abolish for-profit prisons, jails, and detention centers and strives to reduce criminalization and incarceration. Libal serves as co-chair of the national Detention Watch Network steering committee, and as editor of the Texas Prison Bid'ness blog which monitors the private prison industry in Texas.  Also participating is Jan Meslin, a UU immigrant justice leader from California, who has organized detention visitation with her cluster of congregations. Sign-up here.

2) Our partners at  National Day Laborer Organizing Network are launching the Undocumented & Unafraid: Ride for Justice Bus Tour / Jornada por la Justicia: Sin Papeles y Sin Miedo

They write:  This summer undocumented workers, students and families will launch a direct action and organizing bus tour to come out of the shadows and shine a light on the unjust criminalization of our communities.  Determined to keep our families together we will risk deportation to force decision makers to recognize our humanity.  We will travel to communities in resistance across the southern part of the country to build a movement generating power from the bottom up to turn the tide on the immigration debate from exclusion to inclusion. 

The deportation dragnet of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police has broken records and hundreds of thousands of families along the way.  More than 1 million people have been deported in the last four years.  With states legislating to target whole communities and federal programs that have facilitated racial profiling, we are arriving at the point where we must all answer the moral dilemma:  Will you comply with hate?

See www.nopapersnofear.org for more about the tour and how you can support it!

3) Restoring Trust: Grassroots Campaign for Breaking ICE’s Hold on Our Communities

Maria Hinojosa, the 2012 Ware Lecturer at Justice General Assembly sharply exposed the federal mass detention and deportation I.C.E. program known as Secure Communities. Our witness at Sheriff Arpaio’s infamous Tent City called for shutting down this cruel facility and the program it symbolizes.

The UUA, and our interfaith and migrant rights partners, are part of a national movement to Restore Trust, a grassroots campaign to break ICE’s hold on our communities -- www.uua.org/immigration/witness/198427.shtml and sign up for the campaign.

Resources include:

• Congregational Toolkit for Immigration Advocacy in Our Communities (PDF, 10 pages)
• Video Webinar: Restoring Community Trust: Breaking ICE's Hold on your Community (YouTube, 70 minutes)
• Stop S-Comm at the Local Level—Find local interfaith partners
• Learn about one community’s work to stop ICE: Santa Clara County Ends Collaboration with IC

4) More Immigration Resources! See our 2012 Justice GA Workshops including our Regional Take Home Sessions, on what’s happening in each region, Effective Congregational Immigration Ministries, Partnering Congregations & Community Organizations, Stopping Arizonification 1070 Copycat Legislation, and more! www.uua.org/immigration/re/ga/index.shtml

5) 5 Minute Video recap of Justice General Assembly 2012 with highlights from plenary, worship, and witness events. Watch video.

In faith, Audra, Craig, Dan, Jessica, Kat, Meredith, Schuyler, Susan, and Taquiena
UUA Witness Ministries staff

See www.uua.org/immigration for resources, congregational stories, policy information and more!