May 26, 2020

JEWISH ACTIVISTS FOR IMMIGRATION JUSTICE OF WESTERN MASS

UPDATES AND URGENT NEEDS


Fighting immigrant DETENTION and DEPORTATION during COVID-19 Crisis


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Intro and Contents
As we’re all shifting to virtual activism, we’re hoping to keep our community informed about important immigration justice issues with this monthly newsletter. If you are receiving this as a forward or from an outside organization, please make sure to sign up for our mailing list so we can contact you directly in the future. Please also send to anyone you know who might want to learn about these issues!

We continue to focus on support and advocacy for asylum seekers and detainees as they struggle with the increased hardship and cruelty created by the current policy changes, such as border closings and deportations, which use the pandemic as an excuse. These policies put people’s lives at risk from COVID 19 in detention centers, in border camps and in the countries receiving those already ill with the virus.

Below you can read about our current campaigns and learn what you can do to help:

  • Advocating for the release of ICE detainees in Massachusetts, joining with many other local groups to protest and publicize the conditions and violence in the ICE unit of the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, MA.
      
  • Support and advocacy for the people in the encampment in Matamoros, where people are at increased risk of COVID. Fundraising to help with medical and food relief, and recovery from the recent devastating flooding in the camp.

  •  Conducting a campaign against the transportation companies that are facilitating deportations at the border, which are still happening daily.

  •  Joining with other community groups to support and pass the Massachusetts Work and Family Mobility Act (Driver’s License Bill).    

  • Songs and poems for inspiration and comfort
Release detainees from jails and detention centers in time of COVID 19
Immigration Detention Was a Black Box Before COVID-19. Now, it’s a Death Trap.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people locked up in immigration detention facilities have feared for their lives. Detainees have raised concerns over their inability to practice social distancing and their lack of sanitation materials — even basic soap to clean their hands and cells -- and large numbers housed together with insufficient disease mitigation practices.

ICE has a contract with the Bristol County Jail in Dartmouth, MA, run by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, notorious for his anti immigrant and racist policies, where over a hundred ICE detainees have been incarcerated. The majority of detainees, as in detention centers throughout the US, have fled violence in their countries, have families here, are seeking safety in the US, and pose no danger to the community.

On-going violence and abuse at ICE unit in Bristol Jail, Dartmouth, MA

As you may have seen in news reports, there was extreme violence against ICE detainees in the Bristol County House of Correction on the evening of May 1—with three detainees ending up in the hospital. Due to our connections with a number of activist groups in the area, we have been able to get first-person accounts of what happened on May 1—and what has been happening since then. If you want to read bullet points from the first person accounts, click here; be aware that these are graphic and upsetting.  
What happened on May 1 has been in the news, and both activists and our elected officials have called for independent investigations, including a release of all videotapes from inside the ICE unit from May 1. What has been less well publicized is the ongoing abuse and retaliation against those who have spoken up; in fact, all those who were in ICE unit B on May 1 have been in solitary confinement since then. Their families did not hear from them for many days and lawyers were initially not allowed to visit or call them either.  
 
We have contacted both our federal and state elected officials as well as the attorney general’s office to express our extreme alarm, and we ask that you do the same.  Please ask that the investigations underway be completed quickly and that those in ICE detention at BCHC be given humanitarian release to go home to their families, since currently their lives are at risk—both from COVID-19 and from the violence and abuse of Sheriff Hodgson and his staff.  
 
Click here to get information about the investigations and court cases that have been called for or are in process and suggested actions you can take.


Organizations helping migrants in the tent
camp in Matamoros still need our help!

What is the current situation at the border in Matamoros, where we witnessed and volunteered in February?
 The number of migrants living at the border of Brownsville,Texas and Matamoros, Mexico, in the tent camp at the foot of the international bridge across the Rio Grande, has decreased somewhat, and is now estimated by volunteer organizations at around 2,000, which is down from the 3,000 who lived there prior to the pandemic. This is in part because the Mexican government daily sends buses to the camp offering free rides to migrants to cities on Mexico’s southern border, such as Tapachula. Much of the the decrease is because virtually no migrants are being ordered to remain in Mexico as part of the Migrant Protection Program. The Southwest border was shut down on March 20 to non-essential travel due to COVID-19 .  U.S. Border Patrol agents now process migrants in the field, and most are rapidly expelled from the United States, often deported on flights back to their countries of origin or other equally dangerous Central American countries.  
Because of the border closing and in order not to bring the virus into the camp, the host of volunteers who used to enter the camp every day has slowed to a trickle, leading some to suppose that the vital services provided by these organizations have also stopped. THIS IS NOT THE CASE.  Team Brownsville , the Resource Center Matamoros , and Global Response Management are still working full time to provide for the basic needs of everyone living in the camp. (See link below for details.) We are still in touch with the leaders of all these organizations, whom we met when we were there in February. They are very grateful for the donations received so far, which enable them to continue doing the work, but they urgently need this funding from the US to continue, since the need is still enormous.  

Most recently, on Sat May 16, the camp experienced a devastating storm and flooding; pictures show the camp running with mud. Within 24 hours Team Brownsville and the Tias had delivered 42 new tents to the camp and are assisting people to rebuild. They are asking for help to continue this life-saving work.
Global Resource Management raised $50,000 to build a field hospital to care for camp residents who become sick with the virus, but also still need our help. Please click on the links above to access each of the three organizations' fundraising pages, and click here: What do our donations pay for? for more details.
Tell transportation companies: DON’T help ICE deport!
ICE hires private bus companies and airlines to carry out the deportations. We witnessed people being loaded onto planes in shackles when we were in Texas. Witness at the Border tracks these daily flights and reports on their website.
We have sent letters to these bus and air companies. Our call for them to stop doing this dirty work will be much stronger if you join it. Please modify the letter as you see fit, or send as is .

Click here to see the letters, addresses, and more explanation.
Driver’s Licenses for All
Support the Mass Work and Family Mobility Act: S.2061, H.3012
Essential undocumented workers are on the front line of this pandemic and
deserve the right to a driver’s license to safely travel to work and take care
of their families’ needs without fear of detention and deportation.
Massachusetts’ activist organizations have been advocating for this bill for
over 15 years, and at last, there is strong momentum for it to pass. Now that
it is in the Senate Ways and Means Committee after being voted out of the
House Transportation Committee, your advocacy and constituent input is
imperative before it goes to a vote. There is current concern about wording
for required identification needed when applying for a license. Activists continue to negotiate a return to the original committee wording, which
was less restrictive. Our local legislators and the Senate Committee on Ways
and Means Committee members continue to need YOUR support and also
encouragement for action.
Click for more information, for details of the bill , and to become involved in taking action , or here.
Songs and poems for inspiration and comfort
How do we keep ourselves going and find the energy to do this hard work when we can only meet and connect virtually? What are our sources of hope? Creativity is one such resource, even when it depicts hardship. Here is a link to a spirited activist group singing ' Never Again --Para nadie ' The words are:

We've got ancestors at our backs 
And we've got generations forward
We've got strength and spirit in our bones
Never again, para nadie! 
Never again, para nadie!  

(Para nadie: For anyone)

And here is a poem by Warsan Shire , a Somali-British writer, poet, editor and teacher. Her poem 'Home' has become a rallying cry for migrants and refugees worldwide.

Email us with your own suggestions for sources of hope; we will share them next time!