Close the Camps, Stop the Deportations, Abolish ICE
Don’t let the horror of what’s happening in our country paralyze you. The situation is not new (see the History of Concentration Camps in the US) but because there is heightened awareness, we are in a moment of possible change. Below are things that you can do to help with the humanitarian crisis created by inhumane immigration policies. This is not a time to sit back. Please do at least one of these suggestions.
Donate Money
- Migrant Justice, the statewide organizing group for immigrant farmworkers in Vermont.
- American Civil Liberties Union is focusing on defending the rights of immigrant families
- The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) is a non-profit focused on “providing free and low-cost legal services to under-served immigrant children, families and refugees in Central and South Texas
- Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) is “helping families at the US border get legal advice and translation services,” and is interviewing families to document what is happening to ensure they are reunited as quickly as possible.
- The Florence Project provides free legal services to detained immigrants in Arizona.
- Project Corazon Travel Fund to send more lawyers (particularly Spanish-speaking immigration lawyers) to the detention centers and refugee camps where help is desperately needed.
Donate Your Frequent Flier Miles
Asylum Seeker Sponsorship
All asylum-seekers must have an individual named sponsor in order to secure release. To learn more about sponsoring asylum seekers to help them see the Asylum-Seekers Sponsorship Project.
- National Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps is planning a weekend of action all across the country over Indigenous People’s Day weekend.
- Follow HIAS, a refugee protection organization
Educate Yourself
- Every second and fourth Monday of the month 5:30-7:30pm, Community Voices for Immigrant Rights, 241 N Winooski Ave, Burlington. Join us to discuss how to ensure that our efforts are long-term, sustained, and supportive of both local and national orgs like Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante doing the work on the ground. There are opportunities for new and seasoned organizers alike to get involved. Breakout working groups will include organizing around educational events, rapid response, nat’l and local street actions, and more. Arrive early (5:30) for free dinner provided by Vermont Worker Center’s Peoples Kitchen. Contact [email protected] if free childcare is needed. For other accommodations, please email [email protected].
- Friday, November 1, 1-4pm. Vermont Educational Alliance on Poverty Symposium: Who Counts? Immigrants, Refugees, and Access in Vermont and Beyond, Memorial Lounge, Waterman,UVM. Immigration policy in the US is undergoing a sea-change due to xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments. As with the backlash against immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in other countries across the globe, the pathways for both legal and unauthorized immigrants to enter and remain in the US have become more precarious over the past five years. For those here, adjusting to new homes and building safe, stable and prosperous lives has been hampered by policies and practices that offer uncertainty instead of support. This talk considers both the broader context of immigration changes in the US and specific changes that question the legitimacy of immigrants and their ability to become regularized on the basis of their use of public services.
- Saturday, November 2, Milk With Dignity Day of Action. Migrant Justice is calling for a Day of Action at Hannaford supermarkets across the northeast on November 2nd! Farmworkers and allies will descend on Hannafords to tell the supermarket giant that it’s time to take responsibility for the human rights of farmworkers. Over a dozen actions are already planned for 11/2! Sign up to join an action or organize one at a Hannaford near you!
Call Senator Leahy
Tell him “Not one more dollar for the camps!” 802-863-2525 or 800-624-3193. Leahy voted in favor of the funding bill that was supposed to have restriction on how it could be spent. Those restrictions have already (and not surprisingly) been disregarded. (See article by Noah Lanard.)
Jam the Lines
Did you know that people across the world can report suspicious activity to ICE and Homeland Security? ICE invites people to report “suspicious criminal activity” to the tip line. This ‘tip line’ is located in Williston, Vermont. Anyone can report to ICE based on suspicion. This tactic utilizes racial profiling and cultivates an environment of fear. We need as many people as possible to call the tip line for as long as possible to keep real “tips” from going through.
CALL: 866 DHS-2ICE. Here are some things you can say to the operator:
- Report seeing a racist orange cretin lurking about the White House
- Report terrorist behavior; that children are being kidnapped from their parent’s arms
- Report the breaking of the 1967 protocol relating to the status of refugees
- Tell a long slow story
- Recite the alphabet
- Sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
- Chant: Love, not hate, makes America great!
- Call multiple times
Share this info far and wide. People report suspicious activity from around the globe, so you don’t have to be in Vermont to jam the line!