Welcome back to our weekly message! Here’s what’s new:
Action:
- New feature: "They are here illegally. Why can't they just follow the rules?" We've found that variations on this question come up often in discussions with people and legislators who oppose immigrant rights. So we would like to to offer some talking points in response, one each week. This week:
- Utter desperation drives many immigrants to seek a refuge in our country, despite the great perils of the journey and the enormous barriers enforced by officials. Patient waiting for years and spending thousands on fees are usually not options, as one's children are kidnapped, raped, or starved, and dire poverty is endemic. For the heart-rending details of one region's example, see "Forced to Flee Central America's Northern Triangle" a 2017 report by the Doctors Without Borders organization.
- The RAISE Act, yet another virulently anti-immigrant bill has been introduced in the US Senate by GOP Senators Cotton (AR) and Perdue (GA) and loudly acclaimed by the White House. It would restrict green cards, bar immigrants from reuniting with their families, end the diversity visa lottery, prioritize applicants with advanced degrees and require that they speak English. It would make an immigration system that is already almost impossible to enter even more so, and much more discriminatory toward minorities. Please register your strong opposition with your Senators (contact info. here.)
- Please be a sponsor of the fall fundraiser, ¡Que Viva Clemente!, which will honor Casa San José as the recipient (to be held October 7 by the LCLAA at City of Asylum on the North Side.) Ad rates, which start at $75, and instructions are here, and more information about the event can be found in this letter from Sister Janice and Julian. Deadline for the ad request is August 25. This could be from an individual or an organization. Thank you so much for making our work possible!
- Will you help us raise visibility for our work? You can post a review on Great Nonprofits (a popular review source like TripAdvisor) by posting a review of your experience with us, as a supporter, volunteer, donor, or Amigo! Go to https://greatnonprofits.org/org/casa-san-jose and click on "Share your story" at the bottom. If you don't have much time, you can just put in a rating without a story. But stories are also great!
- A big THANK YOU! to two of our Amigos for generously lending us their van to drive a group of our young people to the Harrisburg this month for the Summer Youth Convening sponsored by the PA Immigration and Citizenship Coalition. This was an opportunity for young people all over the state to share stories, build relationships, and develop their leadership and organizing skills.
- Reminder: workshop on Supporting Immigrant Rights in Your Community. Learn how Pittsburgh supports immigrant rights and where your state legislator stands - what the issues are and how to work for productive solutions. It is hosted by Casa San José, the Thomas Merton Center, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. (Library locations are here.)
- Thursday, August 10th, Mt. Washington Library, 6-8 pm.
- Last Tuesday, Monica, our community organizer, had just returned from her trip to Mexico. She was soon bombarded with calls about ICE detentions in Pittsburgh almost every day last week. Here's what happened on Thursday: at 7:30 a.m. an ICE van was waiting outside a house on Fallowfield St. in Beechview as 3 men came out on their way to work. ICE officers stopped and questioned them all. None of them was the person they were looking for, but they arrested one of them, Roberto (not his real name,) a Casa client, anyway. Someone in the house witnessing this called Monica via Facebook to get help. She immediately assembled members of the Rapid Response team, and they, along with Roberto's American sister-in-law, spent the next 3 hours in the ICE office on the South Side filling out forms and trying to get in touch with him - even though he was in the same building. Finally the lawyer on the team was able to speak to him and learn what happened, so they could begin arrangements for a bail hearing. So many people are now being held in the main ICE prison in York that Roberto has been transferred to the Cambria detention facility, where he will have to wait for an opening at York to even get a date for the hearing. He will be locked up for the foreseeable future - but at least he won't be deported immediately. Roberto has no criminal record whatsoever.
- "Fewer Immigrants Mean More Jobs? Not So, Economists Say" from the New York Times, Aug. 3, in opposition to the claims of the RAISE Act sponsors.
- "Ignorant Immigration Reform", the New York Times, Aug. 4, ditto.
- "Immigration is integral to the nation’s economic growth" is only one of the positive conclusions in the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine's 2016 Report, The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration.
