Thurs 7/11: Get ready, get set…Join us at the #LightsforLiberty vigil tomorrow.

First, a little music…

Good news!

AB-32, CA’s bill to close private detention centers within our state passed from the Public Safety Committee, thanks to Sen. Jackson and all you callers! Now it’s on it’s way to Appropriations.
This just in! The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony related to the “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, detention or short-term custody of children or migrant families, and “discussions about or offers of presidential pardons to Department of Homeland Security officials or employees.”

Bad news!

The government is searching in five U.S. cities for properties large enough to imprison up to 500 hundred kids (fortune). Properties with 20-year leases... No, guys, the Flores agreement stated 20 DAYS!
ICE just did what Congress told them not to do…they opened up three new for-profit immigration detention centers in the last few weeks.(mother jones)

What you can do on…Join in on Friday for the Lights for Liberty vigil.

Throw your friends and family in a car and join us! Almost 50 community groups will be participating in a peaceful protest for LightsForLiberty, this Friday 7/12, at the ICE offices in Camarillo. Facebook post here. It’s an evening vigil,from 7-10, so bring a flameless candle (law enforcement has asked for no real flames.) Continue reading “Thurs 7/11: Get ready, get set…Join us at the #LightsforLiberty vigil tomorrow.” →

Mon 7/8: AB-32 is now in Public Safety. Call Hannah-Beth again today and tell her to keep up the fight against the private prison business.

Your calls to Senator Jackson were heard! Do it again!

“Bank of America to cut ties with companies that help run immigrant detention centers, private prisons.” (USA Today)

“We must address the complete scope of what’s going on in these Wall Street-run corporate detention facilities. California should not be home to companies that are profiteering from the tearing of innocent children from their families. This is inhumane and goes against who we are as Californians and Americans.

“It’s time California takes a stronger stand for the humane treatment of those being detained or incarcerated in our state and be a model for others across the nation. We are better than this and we cannot and must not be silent during this inflection moment in our history.” – Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland)

Action – Call State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson TODAY and tell her to again vote “YES” on AB-32.

Last Tuesday, Senator Jackson helped push this bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s now in the Senate Public Safety Committee, and she’s on that too! Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9th, she, along with fellow senators Skinner, Moorlach, Bradford, mitchell, Morrell and Wiener, have on opportunity to help outlaw private prisons in CA, including immigrant detention centers, and all the human misery that come with them, by voting “YES” on AB-32. Continue reading “Mon 7/8: AB-32 is now in Public Safety. Call Hannah-Beth again today and tell her to keep up the fight against the private prison business.” →

Tues 7/2: CA Senate Judiciary Committee is voting on AB-32 at 1:30 pm today! Call Hannah-Beth this morning and tell her that we want out of the private prison business too.

“Bank of America to cut ties with companies that help run immigrant detention centers, private prisons.” (USA Today)

“We’ve all seen the current humanitarian crisis play out along the southern border. No human being deserves to be held in the horrific conditions we’ve been seeing in these for-profit, private facilities. It’s clearly not enough to focus our legislation on prisons alone.

We must address the complete scope of what’s going on in these Wall Street-run corporate detention facilities. California should not be home to companies that are profiteering from the tearing of innocent children from their families. This is inhumane and goes against who we are as Californians and Americans.

Action – Call State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson THIS MORNING and tell her to vote “YES” on AB-32.

Today at 1:30, our Senator Jackson, along fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (Senators Borgeas, Durazo, Gonzalez, Jones, Monning, Stern, Umberg and Wieckowski) have on opportunity to help outlaw private prisons in CA, including immigrant detention centers, and all the human misery that come with them, by voting “YES” on AB-32.

Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote “YES” on AB-32.

Contact:
State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (SD-19): SAC (916) 651-4019
Not your people?: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.

Thurs 6/27: Yeah, they’re concentration camps…so now what do we do?

Action #1 – If you haven’t called your legislators on HR 2415/S.1243 – Dignity for Detained immigrants” yet – start here.

Go to this link and follow the instructions in Action #3 on that page to make a 10-second call to your legislators.

Action #2 – Check out local activities!

Activities listed here.

Action #3 – Congress’s final funding bill must comply with humanitarian basics.

Both houses have passed their bills for funding addressing the humanitarian crisis at the border. Both versions include stipulations regarding migrant care and prohibit the use of the funds for a border wall. However, the Senate bill offers the Pentagon funding and has fewer rules on how agencies can appropriate the funds. The House bill has many more restrictions on how the administration can use the money and contains clear standards for the care of children. It also bans the HHS secretary from waiving requirements for facilities designated as “emergency influx shelters”, which is how the administration has gotten around the 20 days maximum of the Flores Settlement. This is how some kids in Homestead, Florida have ended up detained for as much as 8 or 9 months. Next, our legislators have to reconcile the two versions.

Continue reading “Thurs 6/27: Yeah, they’re concentration camps…so now what do we do?” →

Mon 6/24: “Things can be concentration camps without being Dachau or Auschwitz.” Tell your legislators to defund hate and uphold human rights. 4 actions.

Quote by Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps. She describes camps as “a deliberate choice to inject the framework of war into society itself. …You are revoking the human and civil rights of non-combatants without legal justification…. you don’t have to intend to kill everyone to have really bad outcomes.”

(Go here for today’s LOCAL SOCIAL JUSTICE actions)

Action #1 – Take a moment to watch history merge with the present.

Great! We’ve fallen so low that the 99-year-old former prosecutor at the Nazi Nuremberg trials has spoken out in protest of the Trump Administration’s treatment of refugees as crimes against humanity. Below is a fascinating 60 minute conversation with a sharp, humorous, ferociously kind man who discusses our immigration laws, war, war criminals, remorse, reparations and the hope he has for our students. What he says here is why we resist. (Download the Universal Declaration of Human Rights here.)

Action #2 – Be an active resister. Speak out against the Sunday Raids.

Last Monday, our president took a moment from his busy day to threaten immigrant communities with a massive ICE raid, perversely nicknamed the “family op“. Continue reading “Mon 6/24: “Things can be concentration camps without being Dachau or Auschwitz.” Tell your legislators to defund hate and uphold human rights. 4 actions.” →

Monday – 6/24: Someday, a young person will ask you what you did during the time of concentration camps. Mark your calendars – 3 local actions – Join in!

There is a philosophy, in both Judaism and Islam, that is paraphrased “whoever destroys a life, it is as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he has saved an entire world.” 33 worlds are now gone.

(Go here for today’s LEGISLATIVE actions.)

“What did you do, grandpa?” – when our country ran amok, when we put scared, desperate men, women and children into freezing cages, when we pulled screaming toddlers from their parents’ grip, when we fed them inadequate or rotten food, or trapped them in vans, or carried their bodies out of our facilities.

Over the last week, we’ve read ferocious arguments on Facebook over the term “concentration camp“. We’ve seen “READ HISTORY!” hurled at each other on Twitter. We watched “Never Again” being reduced from the robust internal tripwire it should be to a verbal tombstone.

Yes, social messaging is a crucial issue in our modern political world. Everyone should be reminding their media circles that we can’t let shame or denial keep us from hearing the warning 6 million souls are screaming to us. There are also active things we can do to help drive that message, to connect with other resisters and to help affected people directly. Here are some options…

Action #1 – June 29th – “Know Your Rights” Workshop

This event, and another offered on July 9th in a different location, are sponsored by Buen Vecino and will be conducted in Spanish. If you’re interested to becoming a Know-Your-Rights educator in English, Spanish or in other languages, check out buen-vecino for further information.

Continue reading “Monday – 6/24: Someday, a young person will ask you what you did during the time of concentration camps. Mark your calendars – 3 local actions – Join in!” →