Immigrant Rights

 

Today, July 29, 2010, a law takes effect that targets undocumented people living in Arizona's communities, SB1070.   Yesterday, we won a significant victory when the courts struck down the most egregious parts of the law. The peoples' voices always rise before the court's decisions, so with this sign of progress we will continue fighting the remainder of this unjust law.   ROP and HDGs have a long history of letting values of human dignity and democracy be our guide through the seas of cultural change. As we celebrate this small victory for basic human decency & prepare ourselves to continue the work of diffusing the wedge of hate in our own communities, let's take a minute to realign with what we know to be true.    

On June 15th ROP joined CAUSA and SEIU Local 503 in the streets to protest Immigration & Custom Enforcement's relationship with local law enforcement and call for an end to deportations.  Immigrants, allies and friends rallied and marched through the streets in front of one of the largest ICE facilities in the Northwest.

    CAUSA continues to lead the call in Oregon for "reform, not deportation!" (one of our rallying calls at the rally & march).  ROPers and local leaders around the state have added their voices to the call for justice, fairness and a humane immigration system.  Folks from Central Oregon traveled in for this event to add their fire to the march with drumming and chanting.  ROP Board Chair, Kathy Paterno added in her voice for the media on behalf of the ROP community (see the story below).

"We want to see the hardworking Latino members of our rural communities acknowledged and appreciated, not harassed, exploited and deported.  Local law enforcement requires good relationships and trust in order to keep everyone safe - but ICE's involvement in our local communities is jeopardizing that trust.  What we need is a fundamental overhaul of our nation's broken immigration system to prevent further erosion of our communities."

- Kathy Paterno, Rural Organizing Project Board President, Crook County, OR

Join ROP & our friends at CAUSA for a march and rally - June 15th in Portland!

Check out this page for an overview and a list of additional resources regarding collaboration between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement. 

There is a disturbing trend in our country right now that is criminalizing migration and dehumanizing immigrants.   Politicians argue that Arizona's new law SB 1070 and the so-called "Secure Communities" program (recently introduced in Clackamas, Multnomah and Marion counties) -- both designed to target "criminal aliens" for detention and removal -- are supposed to make our communities safer.  But ultimately, these laws and programs play on people's fears and stereotypes about immigrants and make our communities less safe.  They dehumanize our neighbors through use of terms like "criminal alien" that seek to create an "us and them" that normalizes discrimination and abuses of mothers and fathers who are simply here trying to make a living and raise their families.

But throughout rural Oregon, people are pushing back!  With hometown strategies, we are lifting up and building towards our own notions of what safe and secure communities look like... 

Coastal Progressives of Lincoln County, Centro de Ayuda and the Rural Organizing Project invited community members to a free half-day popular education workshop presented by Equipo Maiz, our friends from El Salvador, on Saturday, April 24, 2010. Nelson Orellana of Equipo Maiz facilitated a workshop that provided a space for reflection and mutual learning across race and culture lines. Participants learned about popular education methodology as an opportunity to pool our collective knowledge and experience and then take action for positive change
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Founded In 1983, in the midst of El Salvador's brutal civil war, Equipo Maiz facilitates popular education workshops and training programs for grassroots organizations and the general population of El Salvador, focusing on leadership development, economic justice, gender equality, environmental issues and civic participation. They also develop educational materials that seek to explain, through simple text and lively, evocative drawings, issues of political and social relevance.

 

With county officials and conservative activists in Oregon counties like Clackamas, Marion and Polk stepping in to "take the reins" in the face of the federal government's inaction, the need for a fundamental overhaul of our nation's economic and immigration systems couldn't be more clear.  This weekend, hundreds of thousands of workers, immigrants and their allies will march together to demand "Jobs for All" and to remind legislators that "Immigrant Rights are Workers Rights".

The climate of division and fear points to the need for something even deeper and more transformative than these absolutely critical changes to national policy.   We need hometown strategies and neighbor-to-neighbor approaches to creating a new culture of equity, solidarity and democratic participation.