Stevenson University issued the following announcement on July 18.
Immigration may be the single most polarizing issue in American life today, whether it’s the Trump administration’s proposed travel ban, the building of a border wall or the recent controversy regarding the separation of migrant families at the southwest border.
While more than three-quarters of Republicans favor spending $25 billion for a border wall or fence along sections of the U.S.-Mexico border, less than one-fifth of Democrats support the proposal, according to a new poll conducted by National Public Radio and Ispos Public Affairs.
The poll also found a majority of the more than 1,000 respondents oppose the travel ban and proposals to curtail legal immigration, including cutting off the ability of legal immigrants to bring extended family members to the United States.
Jews United for Justice is a nonprofit that advocates for a wide range of social justice issues locally and around the region. Jmore recently spoke with Molly Amster, Baltimore director of JUFJ, and Bennet Wilcox, the organization’s Baltimore community organizer, about the immigration issue.
Jmore: What is the most important immigration issue here in Baltimore?
Wilcox: People here are angry and want to do something. In Baltimore, [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency] functions with significant autonomy. ICE check-ins used to be routine, but now ICE can bring people in and deport them.
Amster: That’s without letting their cases be heard by the public. These people are not allowed to return to their local families, but instead they are tried and deported.
Wilcox: In addition, some kids from our southern border are being brought here with the consent of local government.
How are you responding to this situation?
Amster: When ICE detains someone and that person is scheduled for a deportation hearing, we make calls to federal and state legislators, the governor’s office and more, and then we accompany people to their deportation hearings. We do not advocate for anyone with a criminal record. But that is not who is primarily targeted by ICE in Baltimore. The people being deported are parents, in some cases people who have had families here for decades.
How do you advocate for these potential deportees?
Wilcox: We have established a Migrant Justice Organizing Team with more than 50 volunteers, and we’re still recruiting. They accompany people to their deportation hearings. We also have rallies to make sure the voices of immigrants are heard.
How do educate and train your volunteers?
Wilcox: We’ve developed educational programs, and we work with Beth Am Synagogue and other Jewish groups. We’ve convened a number of social justice and social action committees from other Baltimore congregations to coordinate their efforts. We work with these committees to put on educational events and coordinate Jewish communal contingents at protests.
Right now, in addition to Beth Am, we’re engaged with committees from Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Chizuk Amuno, Bolton Street Synagogue, Kol HaLev, Hinenu: the Baltimore Justice Shtiebl, Chevrei Tzedek and the Baltimore Jewish Cultural Chavurah.
We also have partnerships with many grassroots groups, including CASA [Court Appointed Special Advocates] of Baltimore, Sanctuary DMV [D.C., Maryland and Virginia] and the Esperanza Center. And we engage with churches through Sanctuary DMV.
Amster: What is lost on the enablers of the immigration enforcement machine is that ICE’s cruel actions punish entire communities, not just the individual slated for deportation. If one parent is deported, their children, spouses and neighbors suffer, too. We know that families are stronger when they’re together, and we know that our community and places of faith are better off when we stand up for each other.
Why should Jews care?
Amster: Our tradition as a nation and as a community has been to welcome the stranger. But the federal government now is unwelcoming, is turning people away. This human rights issue has deep resonance within the Jewish community and among individual Jewish families. Our tradition says over and over and over that we are to welcome the stranger. Many of our families are here because they sought refuge in this country. Some of our ancestors were undocumented immigrants, and some of them were turned away from America and perished in the Holocaust.
Wilcox: Our immigration system has been shaped by white supremacy and racism, from the exclusion of Chinese and other Asian immigrants to now when the system is focused on racist scapegoating against Middle Eastern and Arab people. The system of anti-Semitism has always been tied into white supremacy, so it’s impossible to take on anti-Semitism without also taking on racial scapegoating.
Your desired results?
Amster: The entire immigration system needs reform. Here in Baltimore, the outcomes we’re looking for include the local ICE office scaling back its efforts significantly. Our drumbeat, and that of our partners, creates pressure for ICE here to prioritize criminal undocumented people for intense scrutiny and deportation, not parents and business owners and other contributing members of our community.
Wilcox: We need more time and chances for people to gain proof of their need for asylum or to pass citizenship tests. We also need an end to city and state government aiding the ongoing attacks on immigrants, including housing children from our borders here. We need our city and state to end its collaboration with the federal government for the people they are trying to lock up here.
We need to hold our elected officials accountable.
Your summer plans?
Wilcox: Much of our work is rapid response to ICE hearings. We need people to show up in numbers and accompany immigrants to hearings. Anyone who is available during the week and is interested in social justice can email me for more information at bennet@jufj.org. We’re looking for more Jews from around Baltimore who are moved to take action in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Stevenson University
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