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Immigrant Rights

On March 14th, more than 200 people
participated in JCA’s annual Immigrant Rights Freedom Seder, recounting the
Passover story, and sharing stories of oppression, immigration, and
freedom from many communities.
Out of their stories, came this
Wordle - a visual representation of the words that describe people’s immigration
histories.
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This new
YouTube video by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs tells two
compelling immigrant stories.
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JCA: We Stand for Immigrant RightsJump to: JCA
Immigrant Rights Campaign History
Immigrant Rights Leadership Team
Get Involved: How You Can Support
Immigrant Rights
JCA Stands for Fair and
Humane Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Immigrant Rights Online
Information
JCA
Immigrant Rights Campaign History
JCA has been organizing for Immigrant Rights
since 2001. This work has entailed specific campaigns as well as work to
organize, educate and mobilize the Jewish community alongside immigrant
communities.
• 2003-2004: JCA works with a broad coalition of faith, labor, immigrant
and civil rights organizations to pass separation ordinances in
Minneapolis and St. Paul to guarantee that local police do not act as
enforcers of federal immigration law.
• 2006: JCA works with the Alliance for Fair Immigration Reform
Minnesota (AFFIRM) and other allies to help build a movement for
comprehensive immigration reform and to defeat anti-immigrant
legislation at the state level.
• 2007: JCA works to put forth the Immigrant Rights State Legislative
Package.
• 2008: JCA works with the town of Postville in dealing with the
aftermath of the largest immigration raid in U.S. history at the time.
JCA and members send tens of thousands of dollars in relief aid to the
affected families. JCA organizes a march in Postville, with partners
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Chicago) and St. Bridget’s Catholic
Church (Postville), that draws 1,500 to demand an end to immigration
raids and in support of worker and immigrant rights.
• 2009: JCA works with over 20 national Jewish organizations on Progress
by Pesach: The Jewish Campaign to Stop the Raids and Call for
Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and on We Were Strangers Too, the
follow-up to Progress by Pesach.
Jewish Community Action is now helping to launch a new campaign effort,
Minnesota Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. It consists of
at least 30 immigrant-rights, faith-based, civil and legal rights
groups, and other community organizations committed to humane, federal
comprehensive immigration reform. This coalition is working closely with
the national
Reform
Immigration for America campaign.
JCA's
Immigrant Rights Leadership Team
Our immigration work is led by the Immigrant
Rights Leadership Team. The IRLT works to build leadership within the Jewish
community and to work with allies in support of immigrant rights and
comprehensive immigration reform.
Get Involved:
How You Can Support Immigrant
Rights
For more information, contact JCA
Immigrant Rights Organizer Lauren Bastien at 651-632-2184 or
lauren@jewishcommunityaction.org.
JCA Stands for Fair and
Humane Comprehensive Immigration Reform
As American Jews, we represent an immigrant people living within a
nation that is rich with diversity of history and experience. Since
the beginning of our history, Jews have known the experience of being
immigrants and wanderers. Indeed, the first commandment given to
Abraham is "leave your land, your people and your parental home." As
slaves in the land of Egypt, we experienced the worst of what
foreignness can entail. Accordingly, our legal and ethical teachings
demand that our own experience of being strangers in other lands
compel us to care for the newcomers within our own communities. The
Torah alone presents dozens of commandments governing the treatment of
strangers, including the prohibition against oppressing the other, and
the mandate to make "one law for both the citizen and stranger among
you" (Exodus 22:20, 24:22).
We in the Jewish community know that people do not flee their homes
without reason. They leave to escape oppression, violence, poverty,
and desperation. They emigrate in the belief that new surroundings
offer better opportunities and a better life. Many have sought such
opportunity in the U.S. and have become our neighbors. They are
individuals striving for the very same things that we seek to give our
families, and they come with the same hopes as our own grandparents.
We cannot look at the immigration question without seeing the faces of
our friends and forebears. Much like the first Jewish immigrants who
arrived in the United States 350 years ago, today’s immigrants seek
freedom and the opportunity to build new lives, to make contributions
and to become full participants in American society.
As Jews, our history and religion teach us that we must speak up when
see injustice. This is why Jewish Community Action joins a
century-long legacy of American Jews supporting immigrant rights.
Because our current immigration system is out of line with Jewish
values of dignity and human rights for all, JCA joins AFFIRM, a
Minnesota coalition of organizations working to pass fair and humane
comprehensive immigration reform.
Alliance
for Fair Federal Immigration Reform of Minnesota
(AFFIRM)
Key Principles for Immigration Reform:
-
family reunification;
-
a path to U.S. citizenship for immigrants
and their families now living and working in the United States;
-
a fair and just immigration process for
future immigrants and refugees;
-
restoring due process and human rights
protections;
-
supporting worker rights.
Immigrant Rights Online Information
Additional Jewish resources:
The Jewish Immigration Toolkit
Labor on the Bimah 2006: Immigration and Immigrant
Rights
Socialaction.com’s Immigrants and Refugees page
A Jewish Vision for the Future of American Immigration
& Refugee Policy – the Hebrew Aid Immigration Society (HIAS)
An Abbreviated Timeline of Jewish Immigration to the
United States – from Jews For Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Local Organizations
Alliance
for Fair Federal Immigration Reform of Minnesota
(AFFIRM)
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights - Energy of a
Nation: Immigration Resources
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAC)
Centro
Campesino
National Organizations
Coalition For Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Detention Watch Network
Reform Immigration for America
Fair Immigration Reform Movement
Immigrant Solidarity Network
Liberty and Justice for All
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
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HEADLINES
FROM JCA
Sukkot Guide:
We Were Strangers Too
Progress by Pesach
Unjust Laws Must Be Resisted
Vic Rosenthal,
executive director of JCA and Julie Plaut, JCA Board member, had
their commentary published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, calling on
the community to resist unjust immigration laws.
Read the commentary
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