News and Opinion
Human Migration and Mobility year in review
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Needed: A New Approach to Immigration
AFSC calls on Congress to follow the will of the majority of the U.S. public (see national survey results) and pass a more humane and effective immigration bill. 
Read our statement on why immigration reform is losing ground due to repressive measures>
New Release: Journey for Human Rights and Dignity: December 10 - 18, 2007. (PDF)
Jornada para los Derechos Humanos y la Dignidad, Diciembre 10 al 18 del 2007 (PDF)
Immigration Reform Losing Ground to Repressive Measures:
Latest Policies Continue Dangerous Descent and Movement Away from Immigration Reform
New “reforms” designed to address border security announced last week by the Bush administration only violate the civil rights of people in this country, while doing little to fix our country’s immigration problems, according to The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization that strongly opposes the new measures. Read More>
Understanding Border Realities: Immigrant Communities Speak United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Migrants
The AFSC San Diego office in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hosted Dr. Jorge A. Bustamante, UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Migrants. Read more> (PDF 319.71 KB)
East Coast Visit of United Nations Special Rapporteur: Focus on Family Separation and Detention
AFSC’s New York Metro Region Immigrant Rights Program was one of the leading coordinators of the NY/NJ segment of the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit to the east coast. Read More> (PDF 119 KB)
Stop the Raids: National groundswell to end raids continues to grow
Immigration raids are destroying the fabric of our communities. More than 200 organizations – and over 1000 individuals – have joined AFSC’s call for an immediate end to immigration raids, which have wreaked havoc in workplaces and communities around the country. Read more > Join our statement to stop the raids >
National leaders concerned about the immigration raids take action and write letters condemning these raids. See the statements from Governor Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin both from Iowa.
Read letter from Mary Ellen McNish AFSC's General Secretary to Michael Chertoff Secretary of Homeland Security
Substantial Gaps Remain in Proposed House Immigration Bill
The recently introduced STRIVE (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) Act of 2007 fails to protect the fundamental human rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in this country, according to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization. Read the press release>
AFSC’s complete analysis of the STRIVE Act of 2007
En español > See summary of analysis >
AFSC Opposes Proposed Immigration Fee Increases
The proposed increases are excessive and will create yet another obstacle for individuals seeking to adjust their immigration status. The proposed fee increases will place too heavy a burden on the backs of immigrants, many of whom cannot shoulder the excessive costs and will be forced to postpone their dreams of becoming U.S. citizens or remain separated from their families.
Read AFSC's letter opposing the fee increases >
More Than 100 Human Rights, Faith, and Community Organizations Call for Immediate End to Immigration Raids
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Vigil outside a
Denver church.
(Photo courtesy of
Firewitch Rising) |
American Friends Service Committee Leads National Call to Stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Workplace Raids and Urges Congress to Develop Rational Immigration Policy. Organizations representing labor, religious and civil rights groups across the country, urge the administration to work with Congress to build humane, rational and fair immigration policies. Read more and see complete list of endorsers > Español >
Learn more about the Swift Plant raids >
Escondido:
A Step Forward & A Step Back
Bowing to pressure from community groups, the City Council of Escondido (CA) announced Dec. 13 that it would drop its efforts to defend a controversial ordinance that threatened to punish landlords for renting to undocumented immigrants.
Activities Remember Hundreds Who Have Died Crossing the U.S. - Mexico Border
Philadelphia (October 31) – The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international social justice organization and co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, joins the nation’s immigrant and refugee communities that will remember the men, women and children who have died attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Escondido Housing Ban Threatens Human Rights
Community Residents Call For Justice
San Diego, CA (October 11) — On October 4, by a 3-2 vote, the Escondido City Council in California introduced a potential ban that would keep landlords from renting to those they believe — or suspect — are undocumented workers and migrants... Read full article >
FENCING IN IMMIGRATION REFORM: REPAIRS TO BROKEN SYSTEM DERAILED
Administration Ignores Human Toll of Impractical Policies
Philadelphia (October 5) - On October 4, while on a campaign swing through Arizona, President Bush signed a Homeland Security bill that will cost taxpayers nearly $35 million.
House and Senate Immigration Hearings - Summer 2006
Untold Stories: Shadow Hearings on Immigration.
Read the letter from Mary Ellen McNish, AFSC General Secretary, to select members of Congress on Immigrants' Rights (PDF 55 KB)
Read the recent testimony of AFSC submitted to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives (PDF 228 KB)
Download a comparison chart of federal immigration proposals (PDF, 111 KB), prepared by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Slideshow of images of resistance from springtime mobilizations around the country >
Community Advisory: Proposed Immigration Legislation Erodes Civil and Human Rights (3/27/06)
Many people are describing the badly flawed legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives at the end of last year as the worst immigration bill in a century. This week the Senate will consider these proposals. The results will affect everyone, citizens and immigrants, regardless of their legal status.
Action Alert: Repairing a Broken Immigration System (3/27/06)
The realities of today’s global economy and the failures of our out-dated immigration laws have resulted in more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today. In 1986 this figure was estimated to be only 3 million. Clearly, the last two decades of government expenditures on increased enforcement have proven a costly failure. Instead, millions of immigrants have been pushed further into the shadows to live a precarious nameless existence in the U.S. In short, past legislative measures (e.g., the 1996 Immigration Act) have completely failed to address the ongoing structural problems in the United States’ immigration system.
Black and Brown people are not each other’s adversaries; we are natural allies. The economic and political forces that doomed millions of Africans to servitude and later to second class citizenship are the same forces responsible for unsustainable economic conditions in many foreign countries and the current migration of people to the U.S. Read more >
Action Alert: Call the White House and Congress Right Away
Action needed in early December 2004: Call the White House and Congress right away, urging your political representatives to reject anti-immigrant proposals contained in the House version of a bill implementing recommendations of the 9-11 Commission's report. Find how to take action >
Immigrants in San Diego organize against Operation Gatekeeper
Adriana Jasso’s raspy, seemingly tireless voice booms with the sound of undiluted passion. Jasso is working the crowd in San Diego, California, during a march to protest U.S. immigration policies... Read full article >
Like many immigrants, extreme poverty drove Adriana Jasso and her family to leave Mexico for the United States. Her father crossed the border in 1972 and remained undocumented for many years, but he continued to visit his wife and growing family in the rural, south-central Mexican state of Guanajuato.
From October 1 – 3, the AFSC’s Third World Coalition Program Committee met in San Diego, California. While there, committee members took part in protest activities to mark the 10-year anniversary of Operation Gatekeeper, which militarized the Mexico-U.S. border and continues to terrorize immigrant communities in the San Diego area.
On October 1-3, 2004, people from California’s Central Valley and afar, from different backgrounds, attended the 2nd Tamejavi Festival in Fresno to see, hear, and taste the diversity of the valley. Terry Foss was one who attended, and he has posted some of his photos so those who couldn’t attend can get a small taste of the cultural mix.
Land of the Free?
Detained immigrants struggle to find asylum in the U.S. In September 2000, eighteen-year old Abdulai Bah arrived at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. He was desperate, scared, and alone, on the run from the civil war that was then raging in his native Sierra Leone.
Human Rights Report: Voices from the Border
Healing Our Border (HOB) is an international nonprofit
organization based in Douglas, Arizona, a small town perched on the U.S.-Mexico
border. These committed activists provide humanitarian assistance to migrants
making the journey from Mexico to the United States.
DREAM Act helps immigrant youth continue their education
Every year, 65,000 immigrant youth are unable to attend
college because they lack immigration papers. AFSC's Project Voice is
supporting a national campaign to deliver 65,000 petitions to the White
House by the end of March 2004. The petitions urge support for two important
pieces of legislation - the DREAM Act (S.1545) and the Student Adjustment
Act (H.R. 1684).
Sign the petition >
Immigration reform, including legalization, is back
on the policy agenda, following a speech by President Bush on Jan. 7 calling
for a new approach to immigration policy. Visit our new immigration reform
section to see AFSC's response, responses by other community groups, and
the text of the speech.
Stories from the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
Millions of immigrant workers in the United States work,
pay taxes, and strive for a better life for themselves and their families.
Yet their contributions are seldom recognized; on the contrary, many are
unprotected by U.S. laws, separated from their families, and exploited
by unscrupulous employers. These and other injustices were brought to
light by the Immigrant Workers Freedom
Ride (IWFR), a historic nationwide mobilization of immigrants and
their supporters
From Sept. 20 to Oct. 4, 2003, nearly a thousand immigrants
and their allies traveled across the country. Along the way they were
welcomed in more than 100 cities and towns. The Freedom Riders affirmed
the contributions of immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, and
exposed the many injustices caused by a broken immigration system. The
culminating celebration in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York drew a crowd
of more than 100,000.
The campaign fostered solidarity among diverse
immigrant communities and forged alliances among the labor movement, faith-based
organizations, and immigrant groups. AFSC staff across the country participated
in events surrounding the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Here are some
of their stories.
Retracing
the 1960s Freedom Rides
Through the Deep South
"Immigration built this nation,” chants Gelazio, 22, of Houston,
as he marches with 5000 immigrant workers and community activists through
the streets of Atlanta in the largest immigrant rights demonstration the
state of Georgia has ever seen. Gelazio and I are part of the Houston
delegation of the Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride (IWFR), a bus
caravan of 900 immigrant workers and activists rallying for immigrants’
rights in 103 cities across the United States on our way to Washington,
DC.
This article introduces the IWFR event to Arabic-speaking
immigrant communities in the United States through the web site of Philadelphia’s
Sudanese community in. It describes the strong outcomes of this mass
mobilization of immigrant communities (documented and undocumented),
and how coalition-building played a major role in this success. The article
encourage other immigrant communities all over the world (especially
in the Third World countries) to draw lessons from this historic event
to help them in strategizing for their work. A complete English translation
will be posted soon. Click
here for the Arabic original.
AFSC offices in Denver, Austin, Kansas City, Des Moines
and St. Louis organized to welcome the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.
Each event in the Central Region drew crowds from 400 to 1000 people.
While I was anticipating a successful event in Des Moines, my “activities
checklist” for the event did not factor in the deep, powerful energy
and passion the riders brought forth.
I was alone for a moment during the afternoon of Oct.
2, waiting before a bank of elevators, remembering the events of the
night before: The Freedom Riders marched like Olympians down the aisles,
holding up signs that identified their city of origin. The crowd chanted
and sang and called for justice. A pastor spoke, then a rabbi, and an
imam. Each said it didn’t matter if we’re Christian, Jewish, or Muslim,
we’re all here for justice. Washington, DC Mayor Anthony Williams
declared October 1, 2003, “Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Day.”
Stepped-up detentions and other enforcement measures
have led to an increase in human rights abuses, in the process sparking
an unprecedented climate of fear in immigrant communities, according
to Amy Gottlieb, director of AFSC’s Immigrant Rights Program in
Newark, NJ.
The 11 women prepared their own speeches and practiced
together before their presentation of the book they had written. These
women are Hmong, Lao, Mexican, Salvadoran, and Mixtec immigrants, all
of whom are workers and residents in the Central Valley. Their book, Immigrant
Women, A Road to the Future, the result of a long process of meetings
and gatherings, was presented on March 8, International Women’s
Day.
Read more: English > Español >
Statement by AFSC's Immigration Concentration Network
17 January 2003
“Special registration” has been roundly
criticized for its inept and chaotic implementation. The problems with
this program, however, run far deeper than mismanagement. It flies in
the face of basic constitutional principles and broadly held notions
of justice and fairness.
Legalization (amnesty) for undocumented immigrants is back on the national agenda, thanks to renewed efforts by immigrant-led organizations and their allies, especially among labor.
The American Friends Service Committee expresses its continued support for undocumented immigrants and affirms the basic principle that people who have established new lives in the United States should have access to procedures that permit them to adjust their immigration status. Read full statement > en español >
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