1) March 10 National Coming Out Day (& Chicago march); March 15-21 National Coming Out of the Shadows Week
2) March 21: March for Immigration Reform in Washington DC (Campaign to Reform Immigration for America)
3) Hunger Strikes Continue at Port Isabel Detention Center (three articles)
------------------------------
1) March 10 National Coming Out Day (& Chicago march); March 15-21 National Coming Out of the Shadows Week
National Coming Out Day
March 10th is National Coming Out Day. In Chicago, the Immigrant Youth Justice League will be holding a rally and a march to launch a week-long “coming out” of undocumented youth across the country. In other cities and towns, students are coming out to their friends on a much smaller scale. Whether big or small, consider participating in the National Coming Out Day and weeks by coming out!
For more info: http://www.dreamactivist.org/
Chicago will come out of the shadows for a mass mobilization on March 10th, 2010
March from Union Park to Federal Plaza
Reunion Time: 11:00a.m.-1:00p.m. Union Park ( W. Lake and N. Ashland)
March Step Off Time: 1:00 p.m.
Arrive at Federal Plaza and Coming Out Event : 3:00 PM
The Immigrant Youth Justice League is working with community organizations for a mass youth-led immigrant rights mobilization in Chicago, and national coordinated actions by youth and students starting on March 10th, 2010 in support for a path towards legalization.
http://iyjl.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=302658652469
National Coming Out of the Shadows Week – March 15th to the 21st
Congratulations! You have decided to come out of the shadows about your undocumented status. Perhaps you have finally decided to tell your friends why you haven’t signed up for your drivers’ ed. class or why you still don’t drive to school. Maybe, you will come out to your guidance counselor, who has asked you repeatedly to turn in your college application, but you were too afraid to tell him/her that you don’t have a social security number and that you still don’t know how you will pay for college without financial aid.
Please remember you are not alone. You are part of a large community of courageous undocumented youth who have decided to come out of the shadows about our immigration status. We live every day in fear and we are tired of it. We want to be able to talk about our lives and our stories without fearing persecution or deportation. We are not free to travel, go to school, work, live, but we refuse to be helpless. In the same way the LGBTQ community has historically come out, undocumented youth, some of whom are also part of the LGBTQ community, have decided to speak openly about their status. Your courage will open the way to having even more conversations about your immigration status. Sharing your stories will allow us, as a movement of undocumented youth, to grow, as we continue to learn to accept ourselves. By being more open we will begin replacing fear with courage and, ultimately, be united in our demands for change. You will be surprised how little other people know about the realities of being undocumented. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to support equal rights for all gay and lesbian people- the same follows for people who know someone who is undocumented. Also note, if you must also confront intersecting oppressions (i.e. Gender, Race, Class, Sexual orientation), coming out about your status is one of the many hurdles for liberation.
Read more: http://www.dreamactivist.org/comeout/
------------------------------
2) March 21: March for Immigration Reform in Washington DC (Campaign to Reform Immigration for America)
CAMPAIGN TO REFORM IMMIGRATION FOR AMERICA
What is the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America?
The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America is a united national effort that brings together individuals and grassroots organizations with the mission to build support for workable comprehensive immigration reform.
On March 21st, we will march on Washington, DC to demand immigration reform and economic justice for all Americans. Our vision of reform includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections, and of an American that’s back to work, with a fair balance between main street and wall street.
People from all across America will lend their voice in the fight for reform. We will come together as one voice on the National Mall for a strong America – for families, for workers, for businesses, and for security.
Join thousands from across the country in the March For America in DC on March 21st, and demand Congress act NOW to pass immigration reform and move quickly to put all Americans back to work
Where: National Mall, Washington DC
When: March 21st, 2010 – Interfaith Service at 1:00 pm, March at 2:00 pm
Sign up to march today!
http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/
------------------------------
3) Hunger Strikes Continue at Port Isabel Detention Center (three articles)
Starving for Reform
by Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune
March 9, 2010
Inmates in a South Texas detention facility began a series of staggered hunger strikes in January, hoping for better conditions and fewer transfers, as advocates pleaded for the federal government to come through on failed promises to reform the immigrant-detention system. Those failings, they argue, prompted inmates at the facility, which sits less than 50 miles from Harlingen, to refuse food in protest of what they allege is mental and physical abuse, lack of medical care and near-nil access to legal resources.
The government said on Friday that only two prisoners remain on what it calls “voluntary fasting” at the Port Isabel Detention Center. But the inmates have staggered their fasts, advocates of detention reform say, so that someone fasting this week might be replaced next week by another protester. Advocates allege that hundreds of inmates have taken part since the strike's inception to protest a detention system steeped in failure, secrecy and alleged human rights abuses.
Read full article:
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/mar/09/mouths-decadence/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Stories
Three new hunger strikers at Port Isabel
By Enrique Lopetegui, San Antonio Current
March 6, 2010
Three detainees [names changed awaiting their permission to reveal their identities] from the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos sent out letters to the Southwest Workers Union announcing hunger strikes, in protest for the condition of their detention and the uncertain status of their immigration cases. [...]
Read full article: http://www.sacurrent.com/blog/queblog.asp?perm=70190
Fire and Ice
By Enrique Lopetegui, San Antonio Current
February 27, 2010
On February 24, about three dozen vociferous activists gathered in front of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement building on Fourwinds Dr. to demand the closing of the Willacy County ("Tent City") and Los Fresnosï' Port Isabel (PIDC) detention centers.
As part of the "Dignity, Not Detention campaign organized by the Detention Watch Network, the activists - including members of Southwest Workers Union, Texans United For Families, Grassroots Leadership, and the Reverend Lorenza Andrade Smith, of the Westlawn United Methodist Church - accused ICE of serious human rights abuses against detainees. And none of the activists was louder - or more specific - than SWU's Anayanse Garza, who denounced abuses against hunger strikers at PIDC and pointed to the alleged culprit.
"This is the pain," she said, holding a petition, "these are the 243 signatures of the people at Port IsabeI that have been tortured, beaten and humiliated, and these orders were coming from [ICE's field office director] Michael J. Pitts, who is sitting very comfortably in his air-conditioned room, while other people are being tortured and threatened with force-feeding by having a tube inserted through their noses. I don't care if the government says that immigrants have no human rights. Immigrants do have human rights. It's not a crime to hunger strike, it is your right, and that's why [Pitts] should be tried. He shouldn't be allowed to even be there right now." [...]
Read full article: http://www.sacurrent.com/blog/queblog.asp?perm=70183
2) March 21: March for Immigration Reform in Washington DC (Campaign to Reform Immigration for America)
3) Hunger Strikes Continue at Port Isabel Detention Center (three articles)
------------------------------
1) March 10 National Coming Out Day (& Chicago march); March 15-21 National Coming Out of the Shadows Week
National Coming Out Day
March 10th is National Coming Out Day. In Chicago, the Immigrant Youth Justice League will be holding a rally and a march to launch a week-long “coming out” of undocumented youth across the country. In other cities and towns, students are coming out to their friends on a much smaller scale. Whether big or small, consider participating in the National Coming Out Day and weeks by coming out!
For more info: http://www.dreamactivist.org/
Chicago will come out of the shadows for a mass mobilization on March 10th, 2010
March from Union Park to Federal Plaza
Reunion Time: 11:00a.m.-1:00p.m. Union Park ( W. Lake and N. Ashland)
March Step Off Time: 1:00 p.m.
Arrive at Federal Plaza and Coming Out Event : 3:00 PM
The Immigrant Youth Justice League is working with community organizations for a mass youth-led immigrant rights mobilization in Chicago, and national coordinated actions by youth and students starting on March 10th, 2010 in support for a path towards legalization.
http://iyjl.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.
National Coming Out of the Shadows Week – March 15th to the 21st
Congratulations! You have decided to come out of the shadows about your undocumented status. Perhaps you have finally decided to tell your friends why you haven’t signed up for your drivers’ ed. class or why you still don’t drive to school. Maybe, you will come out to your guidance counselor, who has asked you repeatedly to turn in your college application, but you were too afraid to tell him/her that you don’t have a social security number and that you still don’t know how you will pay for college without financial aid.
Please remember you are not alone. You are part of a large community of courageous undocumented youth who have decided to come out of the shadows about our immigration status. We live every day in fear and we are tired of it. We want to be able to talk about our lives and our stories without fearing persecution or deportation. We are not free to travel, go to school, work, live, but we refuse to be helpless. In the same way the LGBTQ community has historically come out, undocumented youth, some of whom are also part of the LGBTQ community, have decided to speak openly about their status. Your courage will open the way to having even more conversations about your immigration status. Sharing your stories will allow us, as a movement of undocumented youth, to grow, as we continue to learn to accept ourselves. By being more open we will begin replacing fear with courage and, ultimately, be united in our demands for change. You will be surprised how little other people know about the realities of being undocumented. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to support equal rights for all gay and lesbian people- the same follows for people who know someone who is undocumented. Also note, if you must also confront intersecting oppressions (i.e. Gender, Race, Class, Sexual orientation), coming out about your status is one of the many hurdles for liberation.
Read more: http://www.dreamactivist.org/
------------------------------
2) March 21: March for Immigration Reform in Washington DC (Campaign to Reform Immigration for America)
CAMPAIGN TO REFORM IMMIGRATION FOR AMERICA
What is the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America?
The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America is a united national effort that brings together individuals and grassroots organizations with the mission to build support for workable comprehensive immigration reform.
On March 21st, we will march on Washington, DC to demand immigration reform and economic justice for all Americans. Our vision of reform includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections, and of an American that’s back to work, with a fair balance between main street and wall street.
People from all across America will lend their voice in the fight for reform. We will come together as one voice on the National Mall for a strong America – for families, for workers, for businesses, and for security.
Join thousands from across the country in the March For America in DC on March 21st, and demand Congress act NOW to pass immigration reform and move quickly to put all Americans back to work
Where: National Mall, Washington DC
When: March 21st, 2010 – Interfaith Service at 1:00 pm, March at 2:00 pm
Sign up to march today!
http://
------------------------------
3) Hunger Strikes Continue at Port Isabel Detention Center (three articles)
Starving for Reform
by Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune
March 9, 2010
Inmates in a South Texas detention facility began a series of staggered hunger strikes in January, hoping for better conditions and fewer transfers, as advocates pleaded for the federal government to come through on failed promises to reform the immigrant-detention system. Those failings, they argue, prompted inmates at the facility, which sits less than 50 miles from Harlingen, to refuse food in protest of what they allege is mental and physical abuse, lack of medical care and near-nil access to legal resources.
The government said on Friday that only two prisoners remain on what it calls “voluntary fasting” at the Port Isabel Detention Center. But the inmates have staggered their fasts, advocates of detention reform say, so that someone fasting this week might be replaced next week by another protester. Advocates allege that hundreds of inmates have taken part since the strike's inception to protest a detention system steeped in failure, secrecy and alleged human rights abuses.
Read full article:
http://www.texastribune.org/
Three new hunger strikers at Port Isabel
By Enrique Lopetegui, San Antonio Current
March 6, 2010
Three detainees [names changed awaiting their permission to reveal their identities] from the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos sent out letters to the Southwest Workers Union announcing hunger strikes, in protest for the condition of their detention and the uncertain status of their immigration cases. [...]
Read full article: http://www.sacurrent.com/blog/
Fire and Ice
By Enrique Lopetegui, San Antonio Current
February 27, 2010
On February 24, about three dozen vociferous activists gathered in front of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement building on Fourwinds Dr. to demand the closing of the Willacy County ("Tent City") and Los Fresnosï' Port Isabel (PIDC) detention centers.
As part of the "Dignity, Not Detention campaign organized by the Detention Watch Network, the activists - including members of Southwest Workers Union, Texans United For Families, Grassroots Leadership, and the Reverend Lorenza Andrade Smith, of the Westlawn United Methodist Church - accused ICE of serious human rights abuses against detainees. And none of the activists was louder - or more specific - than SWU's Anayanse Garza, who denounced abuses against hunger strikers at PIDC and pointed to the alleged culprit.
"This is the pain," she said, holding a petition, "these are the 243 signatures of the people at Port IsabeI that have been tortured, beaten and humiliated, and these orders were coming from [ICE's field office director] Michael J. Pitts, who is sitting very comfortably in his air-conditioned room, while other people are being tortured and threatened with force-feeding by having a tube inserted through their noses. I don't care if the government says that immigrants have no human rights. Immigrants do have human rights. It's not a crime to hunger strike, it is your right, and that's why [Pitts] should be tried. He shouldn't be allowed to even be there right now." [...]
Read full article: http://www.sacurrent.com/blog/
I'm sure with this immigration reform President Obama started he will be a hero all all the immigrants especially for the illegal immigrants. I think the motive of Obama for this immigration reform is to end the abuse for the detainees and to propagate human right.
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