Two weeks ago, when the Senate Judiciary Committee was debating the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744), we asked for your help. Many of you responded powerfully to protect asylum seekers and torture survivors — and succeeded in urging the committee to reject harmful amendments to the bill!

UUSC supporters sent approximately 1,500 e-mails urging Senate Judiciary Committee members to keep provisions of the bill that would protect asylum seekers from unnecessary detention. We were also heartened to hear from UUSC supporters made calls to influential committee members. Thanks in part to your efforts, amendments proposed by Senators Grassley and Sessions that would make detention even more draconian were struck down, and the bill passed the committee with protections intact.

Andrea Black, executive director of the Detention Watch Network commented: "DWN is encouraged to see that the Senate Judiciary Committee upheld American values of due process and fairness by voting against harsh amendments introduced by Senators Grassley and Sessions. The provisions would have stripped important detention reforms the Gang of Eight wisely included in the bill."

UUSC has worked with allies like Detention Watch Network and the Center for Victims of Torture to protect torture survivors and political asylees who are put into immigration detention when they enter the country requesting asylum. This new bill, which opens the possibility of the road to citizenship for 11 million people, offers real hope for the political asylees and torture survivors caught in immigration detention.

For people who have experienced and fled torture in their own country and come here seeking safety, their first experience under the current law might be getting apprehended by armed border agents and put into an "ice box," a cold cell. Then they might be handcuffed and brought to a detention center. For torture survivors, this treatment is dramatically re-traumatizing. They often languish months in detention waiting for their "credible fear" interview with Immigration Enforcement — this is their chance to establish grounds for asylum. If they do not speak English, they can disappear into the system for months.

The new law as currently written would change much of that. It makes provisions for all detainees to get an interview within five days of detention — with a nongovernmental organization, not an immigration officer. It also explores community-based alternatives to detention, rather than locking people up in jails, and provides access to legal aid, which most detainees do not currently have.

The Immigration Modernization Act will face a tough struggle on the floor of the Senate in mid-June before it goes to an even tougher struggle in the House. UUs proved they could make a difference during the markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee when they helped protect the positive detention provisions. We need you to stand firm over the next few weeks and help this bill pass the Senate with those provisions intact. Stay tuned, because once the bill gets to the floor of the Senate, we will ask you to raise your voices again in defense of people unjustly caught in the detention system. Use your rights to help them make a case for theirs!

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and as the new immigration bill moves forward, there’s been increasing fear mongering toward immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.

One of the things I appreciate most about UUSC and our supporters is how we stand firm for our basic values. Even in the face of difficult events, UUSC’s activists have been steadfast in affirming that human rights are fundamental and cannot be compromised.

Last week, UUSC supporters sent more than 1,200 e-mails to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, calling for the protection of asylum seekers. These e-mails, in addition to follow-up phone calls from UUSC supporters, made an impact. On May 9, two amendments that would have harmed asylum seekers were rejected.

But our biggest challenge during this markup period is still ahead. Sen. Chuck Grassley has introduced amendments that would eliminate humane alternatives to detention, remove protections for stateless people, and make it possible for the United States to jail asylum seekers for even longer periods of time. He’s even proposed delaying certain sections of the bill until one year after an investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing!

UUSC's offices are in Cambridge, Mass., and the marathon bombing was close to home for us, both physically and emotionally. But at UUSC, we do not believe that safety and respect for human rights are mutually exclusive.

And we reject the idea that immigrants should automatically be treated as criminals. Instead we believe that the law should encourage due process and protections for vulnerable populations. Immigrants should “be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person," as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This respect is upheld in the principles of many Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Contact Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today. Ask him to oppose the Grassley amendments that would weaken or eliminate protections for refugees and asylum seekers in the new immigration bill. The pace at which this process will move is hard to predict, but right now it looks like Grassley's amendments could be considered as soon as Thursday, May 16.

You can also call the Senate Judiciary Committee by dialing 866-940-2439.

We can’t let fear mongering derail the best chance we’ve had in years to protect survivors of torture and others fleeing persecution. Please act now.

I've been looking forward to General Assembly this year, especially the chance to talk with so many UUSC members and supporters about our work promoting human rights around the world. I'm also eager to return to Phoenix for the cause of justice.

On July 29, 2010, I joined dozens of other UU protestors in the intersection in front of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's plush offices to protest Arizona's anti-immigrant law S.B. 1070. It was very hot. Police were everywhere. A young seminarian sitting led us in singing, "When I breathe in, I breathe in peace; when I breathe out, I breathe out love." We continued chanting for 40 minutes, as our group grew ever smaller while we were arrested one at a time.

At one point, a young Latino man took my picture. I smiled at him as I sang. He leaned in closer and whispered in my ear with tears in his voice and a heavy accent: "Thank you. I will never forget you." His words assured me that I was doing the right thing. That young man's gratitude helped sustain me during the 27 hours I spent in Sheriff Arpaio's jail.

The food was terrible. Arpaio prides himself spending only 87 cents per day per prisoner. It was impossible to sleep. It was cold and there were no blankets. The bright fluorescent lights were kept on, there was no place but the concrete floor to lie down, and the guards kept inexplicably moving people between the three cells that held us. We learned from those who had been in jail before that toilet paper has many uses. A full roll makes a pretty good pillow. Toilet paper can be wrapped around bare arms to create a sweater of sorts, or unraveled to create a thin but better-than-nothing mattress.

The Phoenix police who arrested us had been surprisingly polite. The county deputies who guarded us were anything but. Whenever we were moved from our cells, we were shouted at and made to stand against the wall. I found it difficult to be treated with such disrespect and those feelings made me all the more aware of my privileged place in our society. It is a luxury, I realized, to expect to be treated with respect by the police, which I normally take for granted.

Throughout the afternoon and night, a variety of women were brought in and out of our cell. Some recognized us from the TV news. They were impressed by such "celebrities," and grateful that a group of middle-aged church ladies would stand up for their community. They were, with only one or two exceptions, women of color. I definitely learned some things about racism in the Maricopa County Jail.

I didn't go to Phoenix to learn about jail. I went because of a law that scapegoats immigrants and Latinos. I went because of an immigration system that separates families, that makes people in some communities afraid to call the police. I went because my ancestors came here on a boat a century and a half ago and they too were made into scapegoats. But there was no law insisting that they be deported, and so my grandparents were born citizens of the United States and I am an American. I went because each year hundreds of people die crossing the Sonora Desert. I chose to be arrested because my faith calls me to proclaim injustice when I see it and to offer hope when I can — which is exactly what UUSC is all about. See you in Phoenix!

Check out the full listing of UUSC's workshops and activities at Justice General Assembly 2012.

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. In this blog post Rev. Eric Cherry, the Director of the UUA’s International Office, describes what is planned for the third trip which will begin on May 25th. The BorderLinks service learning trips are made possible through the generous contributions of UUA and UUSC donors.

It was a privilege to journey with Unitarian Universalists who are engaged in a diverse array of ministries during the BorderLinks delegation last January. And last month (April) a second UUA/UUSC delegation had an equally powerful experience. Together the people on these delegations grew in understanding the complex justice issues related to the US/Mexico border. They also found room for theological reflection about those matters. And, through the eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart connections with people living in this context, each returned deeply committed to the ongoing religious work for immigration justice.

The participants in this third UUA/UUSC delegation are also faith leaders engaged in diverse ministries: lay and ordained, in both parish and community settings. And, they are sure to have a deep and rich experience that will include visits with:

• Scholarships A-Z: A network of students and advisors working to make education accessible for all students. They help connect students to available resources and train them to be their own advocates.
• Grupos Beta: A Federal Mexican Organization that has offices along the northern and southern borders of Mexico and one in D.F. There mission is to protect the migrant.
• The Green Valley Samaritans: Volunteers who to into the desert on water runs and searches Their goal is to help protect any migrants they come across in the desert, in an effort to prevent deaths along the border region.
• Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC): HEPAC is a sister organization to BorderLinks and a community center in Nogales, Sonora. Programs offered at HEPAC include adult education and training classes, and the Child Food Security Program, which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also is home to a women’s cooperative that produces jewelry that raises awareness about deaths in the desert.
• Observing Operation Streamline and analyzing its injustices with legal professionals who confront it constantly.

Further stories from the journey will be posted after the trip. Please come back to see the reflections of the participants.

UUSC partner joins front lines of Phoenix protests

I was reading a blog from one of our economic-justice partners when the news broke that a federal judge in Arizona had issued an injunction blocking key parts of the state's new anti-immigrant law from taking effect. Fernando Garcia, campaign coordinator for UUSC's partner the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center in Springdale, Ark., has been in Phoenix all week supporting the drive for human and immigrant rights as he participates in prayer vigils, rallies, civil disobedience, and counterprotests designed to express national outrage at the Arizona law.

"People here are fighting vigorously to stop this legislation in its tracks and win humane solutions to immigration," Garcia said in his blog post. "If it doesn't stop here, we better believe it will be knocking on our doors soon."

The Arizona law became effective today, July 29, but without the most egregious provisions that were put on hold by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton. She issued a preliminary injunction against sections that call on police officers to check a person's immigration status if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that someone may be undocumented and that require immigrants to carry their papers at all times.

The judge did not rule on the merits of the case but prevented enforcement of the most controversial sections until the litigation has reached a final conclusion, probably by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Justice Department after President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder strongly criticized the new law as unconstitutional on a number of levels.

UUSC has condemned the Arizona law in the strongest terms, citing the anti-immigrant hostility it expresses and the human-rights violations it encourages, among many other reasons. (Read the full statement: "Immigrant Rights are Human Rights.")

After reading some of the news stories about the judge's ruling, including reports in the New York Times and the Arizona Republic, it was refreshing to read Fernando Garcia's account from the front lines of the mounting immigrant justice movement in Phoenix. The stories, messages, and analyses are very powerful, and paint a different picture than what we see in most of the mainstream media.  

"Regardless of the injunction, the reality on the ground is incredible," said Garcia. "I heard stories of homeowners walking away from their houses to get out of the state. One [Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice] workers center member said four families have moved out of Arizona from his block alone. He mentioned that a popular supermarket chain has closed 70 of their stores since the law was enacted only of few months ago.

"Innumerable amounts of people have ripped out their roots to flee the political environment, but each family's departure leaves a hole in the economy and the social fabric of those who remain."

The Northwest Arkansas Workers Justice Center is a community-based organization that advances the rights of low-wage and immigrant workers through organizing for improved wages and working conditions. The Center educates and supports workers to be effective advocates, while building local and national partnerships to involve the broader community in the struggles of workers in Northwest Arkansas. Several local police departments in Northwest Arkansas participate in the federal 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.

Marin (left) and Rodrigo, of Vincente Guerrero, Mexico, worked lawfully in the United States on the "H-2B Visa for Skilled and Unskilled Workers." Both cited the lack of jobs in Mexico and the opportunity to earn extra income for their families as reasons for immigrating. Up to 66,000 H-2B Visas are issued by the U.S. government every year.

For months, our collective efforts to face the economic crisis have eclipsed most other conversations about overarching issues that affect us as a nation. But last week, the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC)-Massachusetts and Jobs with Justice sponsored a forum on immigration.

Although the question of immigration reform seems to have been relegated to a quiet blip flying under the radar (at least in terms of attention from the national media), it remains very real for 40 million immigrants (particularly the nearly 12 million of them who are undocumented) who live day-to-day, trying to make a decent living in this country, and for all those who stand in solidarity with them.

Panelists Avi Chomsky, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jeannette Huezo, and Oscar Chacón gave insightful commentary on the political landscape for immigration policy reform in 2009, exploring the question, "Is a Humane and Just Immigration Reform Possible in an Economic Crisis?"

Chomsky addressed the central question through an analysis of how we define the economic crisis. She argued that it is usually defined with job loss at its center, with job loss resulting in a decline in the country's ability to produce and consume. This definition limits our understanding of the economy, confining it to the view that "the more production and consumption, the better." We should, instead, examine the conditions under which production takes place, or the full range of consequences of our consumption — including its impact on workers, our health, and the environment.

Instead, we need to redefine the economic crisis as a crisis of inequality.

It has become painfully clear — through everything from the voracious growth of the unregulated private investment system to the unethical sub-prime mortgage practices to the falling value of the minimum wage — that the combination of a growing gap between rich and poor and a frenzy of speculation is unsustainable.

Not only is there socio-economic inequality at the local and national levels, but also at the global level. The United States makes up 5 percent of the world's population, but consumes anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of the planet's resources.

This inequality is not accidental. In fact, Chomsky emphasized, it is a direct result of U.S. foreign and domestic policy: everything from how international trade takes place to how U.S. corporations operate in the Global South.

And this is where immigration comes in, because as long as resources are being drained out of countries like Mexico into the United States, there will be people coming to this country to seek a better life for their families.

Many immigrants affirm that if they had the same opportunities in their home countries as they seek in the United States, they would stay at home. Home is where their families, their culture, and their roots are — it's home. Not to mention, many immigrant workers express that prior to coming to this country they underestimated how hard it would be to get a good, safe job that pays a living wage. Of course, this is a direct result of inequality of opportunity that is shaped by our current immigration policy and by race, ethnicity, class, and gender dynamics.

A humane immigration reform would both allow for people to pursue full economic opportunities in their home countries and ensure that those who choose to come to the United States can fully realize their economic, social, cultural, and political rights.

So, what will it take to change the dynamic of global inequality that leads to increased migration? What will it take to build a more just system of immigration?

Chomsky reminds us that it begins with redefining our conception of the "standard of living," which has thus far been associated with higher consumption, to looking toward building a sustainable "quality of life." That is, by lowering our consumption, we actually achieve a more just and equal distribution of resources. In this new scenario, production would be tailored to meet human needs, rather than to maximize profits, which only deepens inequality.

To address the crisis of inequality, there would need to be a reorientation of government economic policies in order to create solid jobs aimed at human needs, protecting the socio-economic rights of those "at the bottom," and instituting safeguards for low-income communities and communities of color in this country. That includes

• enforcement of labor laws on health and safety and wages,
• expanded legal rights and full human rights for immigrants, and
• expanded membership in unions, especially for immigrants and women.

Moreover, we would need to restructure U.S. trade and foreign policy to promote a redistribution of resources to the Global South, creating conditions for people to make a dignified living anywhere in the world, so that people would not have to leave their home countries.

Decreasing inequality both domestically and internationally would not only build a stronger foundation for the economy and begin closing the wealth gap, but there is also potential for a profoundly positive environmental impact. So this framework is not just helpful to understanding how to reform our immigration system: it is connected to local, national, and global issues of environmental justice. Community-led, grassroots economic development would present an opportunity to "green" the economy from the bottom-up, and it would begin to remedy the damage inflicted by the biggest fossil-fuel-guzzling economies against the least-energy-consuming countries.

For me, all of this begins to look like a spiritual shift. Over many years, the immigration debate has been framed largely in fearful, racist, xenophobic terms. Immigrants have been treated merely as tools to bolster our economy through their hard work and investment in the system, regardless of whether they had the rights to go along with their contributions and regardless of how immigrant communities bore the brunt of the crisis of inequality.

But as panelist Oscar Chacón pointed out, now we have a moment of opportunity — ironically, in the context of economic crisis — to reframe the narrative of immigration.

Author, activist, and Quaker spiritual teacher Parker Palmer has written,

Who doesn't know that a society in which the rich get richer while the poor get poorer is a society that will someday have to pay the piper? Who doesn't know that when a relatively small fraction of the world's population uses its power to command and consume a disproportionately large fraction of the world's resources, the chickens will come home to roost? Who doesn't know that an economic system that encourages us to live beyond our means and refuses to regulate greed is one in which our avarice will come back to bite us? Who doesn't know that at every level of life, from personal to global to cosmic, what goes around comes around?

The problem is not that we don't possess a capacity to know these things. If we didn't, we wouldn't have all the colloquialisms I just used! The problem is that the knowledge we need, like the seismic shifts that create eruptions, originates underground. It comes from a place within us deeper than our intellects, a place the poet William Stafford calls ‘a remote, important region in all who speak,' a place sometimes called the inner teacher or the soul.

But rarely do we allow ourselves to go to that place. Instead, we fill our lives with noisy distractions, blocking our access to insights that might scare us but could also save us. The purpose of an authentic ‘inner life' retreat is not to flee from a frightening world, but to give ourselves access to those deeper sources of knowing that can help us find our way through what we fear.

A storm is brewing as Tropical Storm Gustav barrels into the Gulf of Mexico. Three years after Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, the people of South Mississippi are bracing themselves again by loading up on emergency supplies and tuning in to storm advisories.

But another emergency already hit Mississippi earlier this week - this time it was the force of the I.C.E., not wind and rain. On Monday, August 25, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Howard Industries plant in Laurel, Miss. Almost 600 workers were detained, including a dozen minors and several pregnant women. It's reported that about 186 children were not picked up from school on Monday because their parents were in detention. Hundreds of small children have been left without their mothers.

As one of the only community-based workers' rights institutions in the state of Mississippi, UUSC Economic Justice partner MPOWER is on the scene, supporting families to connect with their loved ones in detention, helping make arrangements to ensure children are cared for, and working with local organizations and churches to address the humanitarian needs.

MPOWER (Mississippi Poultry Workers for Equality and Respect), based in Morton, Miss., is focused on building the capacity of poultry-processing workers to combat abusive labor practices in the industry, with particular attention to building solidarity between Latino immigrant and African American workers. As a "worker center," MPOWER also provides labor rights education to workers in other industries all over Mississippi, and through advocacy and organizing, responds to urgent needs faced by workers as they arise. This week, the staff of MPOWER has been actively providing assistance and support to the workers and families who have been most affected by the raid.

So much uncertainty looms on the horizon, as workers and their families affected by the raid also await the impending tropical storm, the path and strength of which is, naturally, unpredictable. MPOWER reports that Mississippi workers' minds are brimming over — a swirl of memories awakened by the anniversaries of Katrina and Rita, anticipation of the equally unpredictable ICE — first Postville, now Laurel, and "where will they go next?"

Just last month, I was in Mississippi to provide technical support to MPOWER. During the course of the days that we were working together on long-term planning, developing their board of directors, and connecting with other UUSC partners, we were called to action as we learned of an arrest of a poultry worker at the Koch Foods chicken plant, just a block from the MPOWER office. The worker who was arrested was a young, single mother of a two-year-old girl. MPOWER helped to find a temporary guardian for the little girl while her mother awaits trial, but you can only imagine the ripple effect of this same trauma happening to hundreds of children.

"For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome."

Fortunately, the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) — a partner of the Rights in Humanitarian Crises program that was supported by UUSC to work with immigrants in Mississippi to claim and defend their rights in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita — is working to provide legal representation for the detained workers. But I can't help but wonder if the workers will truly have access to the due process that is promised by this country. Will they be sufficiently informed of their legal rights? Will they be provided meaningful access to legal representation? The connections between workers' rights, civil liberties, rights in humanitarian crises, and immigration in this country are inextricable.

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend — and as we strive every day to uphold the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations — let us remember the workers and their families in Mississippi who are weathering the storms.