Written by Andrew Wainer, Immigration Policy Analyst at Bread for the World Institute. 2011 was a record year for U.S. farmers, with farm income topping $100 billion. This includes sales of $22 billion in fruits and nuts and $21 billion in vegetables and melons – crops that rely on immigrant farm labor. But even as U.S. farmers prospered in 2011, [...]
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Blog: Immigration Reform…in Small Steps
From Melanie Fox, Friends Committee on National Legislation. Small steps may be the key to reforming our largely unjust and broken immigration system. One of those small steps is exactly what the nation witnessed when H.R. 3012 was passed by a whopping 389 votes in the House. The vote, which took place last Tuesday night, marks [...]
Blog: Stop Understanding, Start Feeling
From Kathy O’Leary, Coordinator at Pax Christi NJ. As I sat down to write this blog post, about our upcoming protest on December 7th in Newark over the for-profit immigration detention contract, I was tempted to lead with statistics about the percentage of foreign born residents in Essex County. Then I remembered a quote from a book on racial [...]
Blog: Unintended Consequences: Alabama Families, Farmers and Lawmakers Struggle with New Immigration Law
Nora Skelly, LIRS Policy Associate, advocates for the protection of refugees, migrants in detention and families affected by our broken immigration system. Nora has worked with Spanish-speaking communities both in the United States and abroad on a number of social justice causes. Every morning, my walk to work takes me past the Newseum, which displays [...]
News: Alabama’s HB 56: “Harshest immigration law in the country”
U. W. Clemon marched in demonstrations alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., worked on desegregation in Alabama and became the state’s first African-American federal judge. He has seen great advancement of civil rights, but is very concerned about their present state. Watch his commentary on Alabama’s anti-immigrant law: Read more from U. W. Clemon here.
Blog: Alabama’s HB 56 – What are the consequences?
Written by Sister Mary Ellen Lacy from NETWORK Lobby and Nicole Taylor from HIAS. In Alabama, Federal District Court Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn recently upheld the most discriminatory, anti-immigrant legislation to date, known as HB56. Consequently, she legalized racial profiling and functional deprivation of rights without due process. In other words, individuals can have their [...]
Blog: The religious freedom argument against HB 56 that was not made
Fred Hammond is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Tuscaloosa who has been doing some great work around immigration there. He is the Program consultant for the Mid-South District of the UUA. The Federal judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn heard the three suits against HB 56 today. While I supported the Department of Justice’s and the Civil Rights suits, I [...]
Blog: Jericho Walk
Fred Hammond is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Tuscaloosa who has been doing some great work around immigration there. He is the Program consultant for the Mid-South District of the UUA. The story of Jericho from the Hebrew Bible is about Joshua and the Israelites who defeated the city of Jericho by marching around the city [...]
In the News: DREAM Act Sabbath Planned
A DREAM Act Sabbath will take place from Sept. 23-25 across the country in an effort to promote involvement and discussion of the pending law. Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Michael Bennet, of Illinois and Colorado respectively, initiated the event in order to raise awareness for the act, whose real name is The Development, Relief and [...]
Important Update; DREAM Sabbath Events Still Needed
In December 2010, advocates and communities around the country were deeply disappointed when the Senate came just five votes short of invoking cloture on the DREAM Act. If passed, it would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented youth brought here as children who have graduated from high school or obtained a GED and [...]
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