JCIJ Newsletter
February 1, 2025 • 4 Sh’vat 5785
TASTE OF HONEY
Bryan Stevenson writes in A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality and the Law, “When you are fighting for justice, you are fighting against hopelessness.” We at JCIJ would add: Hope and activism in community are our superpowers! Let’s continue to take action together against deportation. Together we can build collective power to resist attacks on immigrant and refugee communities.
Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day
JCIJ turned out our biggest group yet for Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network’s Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day! It was a powerful, connecting, beautiful day in community standing together in the face of attacks on immigrant communities. Thank you to WAISN for bringing over 500 people together - the biggest IRAD yet - as we fight for wage replacement, health equity, support for newly arrived migrants, and more!
ACTION ALERT
This legislative session, we're fighting funding for a wage replacement program (i.e., unemployment insurance) for excluded undocumented workers, accessible health care for immigrants, and support for newly arrived migrants in Washington State.
SEND A LETTER TO YOUR LEGISLATORS!
NEWSLETTER SURVEY
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EVENTS
JCIJ Advocacy Training: Take Action for Immigrant Justice this Legislative Session
REGISTER
On February 10th, join the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice for our 3rd annual Take Action for Immigrant Justice: JCIJ Advocacy Training during Legislative Session.
Hear immigrant-led WA Immigrant Solidarity Network’s Policy team share about legislative priorities and create action plan for how to take impactful action this legislative session. This is a free virtual event. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link.
View JCIJ’s Legislative Agenda.
Accompaniment Training for New Volunteers - Sunday, February 23rd - Join the waitlist!
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Register for JCIJ’s Accompaniment training intended for new volunteers on Sunday, February 23, 2025 from 10am-2pm with lunch included. Be a part of deportation defense efforts and learn how to accompany immigrant community members to ICE check-ins, biometrics and ankle monitor appointments, and court and asylum hearings.
Training will be participatory and practical and include what to do if the community member is detained. You will be ready to volunteer after this training!
HIAS Refugee Shabbat at Congregation Beth Shalom
REGISTER
JCIJ is honored to co-sponsor HIAS Refugee Shabbat, which includes an authentic Egyptian lunch and opportunity to learn about this current moment and ways to take action.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
WAISN Rapid Response & Know Your Rights Trainings
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Upcoming WAISN Rapid Response Trainings
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The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) is growing Rapid Response Teams, groups of trained individuals who are activated to document and provide support to affected families when activity, raids, or detentions by immigration agents are reported in their community. You can join alone or host a watch party!
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Wed Feb 5th 6 pm - 8 pm Register
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Sat Mar 29 12 pm - 2pm Register
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Upcoming WAISN Immigration Know Your Rights Trainings
Family Safety Training for Parents and Community Members
The second training hosted by Legal Counsel for Youth and Children (LCYC) and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) intended for parents and other community members is taking place on February 5 at 6 pm. Watch the last training and access handouts in the Resources section in the Zoom registration link.
REGISTER
FAN's Annual Interfaith Advocacy Day in Olympia
Thursday, February 20, 2024 | 9 AM - 3 PM | The United Churches of Olympia
REGISTER
Faith Action Network’s Interfaith Advocacy Day brings the voices of compassion and justice to our elected leaders. Meeting with your legislators and their staff on this day is putting faith into action! Registration deadline is February 3.
VOLUNTEER
VOLUNTEER
JCIJ supports two free legal clinics!
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A Monday afternoon TPS (Temporary Protected Status) legal clinic from 11:40am - 4:15pm for Spanish speakers at Riverton Park United Methodist Church. Volunteers who speak Spanish are especially needed, but fluency is not required! No legal experience required. We have an amazing team of dedicated volunteers (weekly commitment not required). Join us! Email Ellen K. at [email protected].
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A monthly day-long Asylum Clinic. This clinic is held on weekends. We are seeking immigration lawyers or paralegals; non-immigration lawyers and paralegals; people with an interest in learning about immigration law; and people who have sufficient fluency in Spanish, Lingala, French, Haitian-Creole or Portuguese to serve as interpreters. Volunteer at tinyurl.com/jcijvolunteer.
RESOURCES
NWIRP Resources | Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
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Check out webinars by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project that help provide recommendations and grounding in the reality of this moment and impacts on immigrant rights.
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Informational videos and PowerPoint slideshows from NWIRP and Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese for asylum seekers to help navigate the immigration court and asylum process.
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Know Your Rights Resources - When the government arrests or tries to arrest someone, or when a government official or police officer "just wants to talk," every person in the United States has certain basic rights. These rights apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship - and regardless of who is President.
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If you are detained at the Detention Center in Tacoma, call NWIRP at 253-383-0519.
Family Safety Planning Webinar hosted by Legal Counsel for Youth and Children (LCYC) and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
WAISN Resources for Deportation Defense | Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
Reporting ICE Activity
Let’s not spread rumors! Report any ICE activity or raids to the WAISN Hotline (open 6am-6pm) but can receive text messages at any hour. Call 844-724-3737.
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WAISN is requesting reports by firsthand observers (not secondhand accounts). Try to take photos and video, document location, time, and as much information as possible.
Additional WAISN Resources
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This app developed by the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) is available for iPhones and is in 16 languages, including Asian languages, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Russian. It has the ability to read your rights out loud to an ICE or law enforcement agent and send a message to an emergency contact. It has other resources as well such as the ability to look up a consulate and a sample family preparedness plan. It will be ready for android phones soon.
LOCAL NEWS
Victory in lawsuit over $1 per day work at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC)
La Resistencia reported that on January 16, 2025 the appeals court in the Ninth Circuit affirmed what a jury in 2017 had decided when The GEO Group was sued for forcing detainees to work for $1 per day between 2014 and 2021: all workers including immigrant detainees who work or have worked in the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) must be compensated at the Washington minimum wage rate of $16.66 and owes $23.2 million in retroactive pay. However, inhumane conditions inside this for-profit detention center continue to worsen for people in detention, including a chicken pox outbreak and subpar medical attention.
The state’s guidance Thursday reaffirmed the rights of all children living in the U.S. to attend public schools, as established by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe. It also underscored that denying enrollment to children who are undocumented violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
The guidance also stated that public schools should not actively seek to provide student information to immigration authorities. And districts need to follow state guidance if authorities contact schools.
The federal government can continue using King County-owned Boeing Field to conduct deportation flights despite county objections, a federal appeals court ruled, clearing a possible local impediment to President Donald Trump’s promised mass deportations. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine Western states, ruled that King County overstepped its power when it tried to block federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using the county-owned airport to conduct deportations.
The ruling, by a three-judge panel, upholds a similar one issued last year by a district-level federal court, and comes as incoming Trump administration officials intend to deport millions of immigrants lacking legal status.
FEDERAL NEWS
Elimination of Protected Areas / Sensitive Locations Policy
National Immigration Law Center put out a factsheet on Trump’s Rescission of Protected Areas Policies.
Indivisible announced a response focusing on schools, Safe Schools for Every Student.
Prosecution of local jurisdictions for not enforcing federal policies.
See this article discussing why this is unconstitutional. However this is a declaration of their intention; the state can use these prosecutions to harass and silence people.
In a hearing held three days after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, a Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided with Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, the four states that sued, signing a restraining order that blocks Mr. Trump’s executive order for 14 days, renewable upon expiration. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said. Thank you to Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown for this powerful lawsuit!
From Never Again Action:
As of Day 4 in office, Trump has issued 61 executive orders related to immigration policy alone (the Immigration Policy Tracking Project’s tracker provides updates in real time as this number inevitably changes) and summary from Innovation Law Lab: Executive Actions Impacting Immigrant Rights. Some of the worst ones include:
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Reinstating the “remain in Mexico” policy
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Attempting to end birthright citizenship (see story above)
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Shutting down the CBP One app, which for all its flaws was helping about 1,400 people per day
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Attacking Temporary Protected Status and suspending asylum, both of which are designed to aid people fleeing war, persecution, and human rights violations
There are so many policy orders being issued that the National Immigration Law Center’s long and detailed analysis analyzes them in batches. Headings include, “Actions subverting the rule of law and facilitating mass deportations” and “Actions scapegoating immigrants and targeting immigrant communities for harm.”
As fires were raging in Southern California, immigrant communities in Bakersfield in Kern County, California, are on edge as the U.S. Border Patrol has been conducting enforcement operations throughout the region recently as videos and images online show agents apprehending people. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the "targeted" operation saying it is against smugglers involved in transnational crime groups. One eyewitness, though, said agents were profiling people and that "it was only Hispanics and field workers that they were putting aside." United Farm Workers members were among the detained, said the union.
The New York Times compared estimates from several research organizations and the federal government, as well as more recent administrative data, to better understand who immigrants are, what their status is, and who may be most vulnerable to deportation.
SONGS IN THE KEY OF JCIJ
Curated by Dina Burstein
A song about the pain of Africans taken as slaves to Peru:
Susana Baca - Sorongo (Official Video) Susana Baca is considered a national treasure in Peru. When Susana Baca burst onto the international scene in 1995, the music of Peru’s African population was little recognised either internationally or in Peru itself, where, like every where, racism is still rife. Baca experienced this "in my own flesh…it's been a painful chapter in my life, and when I recall it I can't help feeling a deep sense of unease.” (from Latinolife)
And a few songs to celebrate Tu B’Shvat (Feb 12-13), Jewish day to honor trees and bring our awareness to our fragile Earth:
Stand Up - Chava Mirel
Mavis Staples - We Shall Not Be Moved
Arvoliko Trio Sefardi, Remembering Flory Jagoda
You Must Believe In Spring (Remastered 2003) Tony Bennett and Bill Evans
Sulu and Janet Bieber - The Bagel Tree [1978]
Pete Seeger - Garden Song (Inch by inch)
Baby Bird Nigun - Aly Halpert
Tu Bishvat by Alix Gaw
Be in touch with the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW
at [email protected] and learn more at jewishcoalition.org.
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Donate to build Jewish Coalition’s advocacy, accompaniment and community engagement.
Volunteer for or learn more about accompaniment, legal support, observing ICE flights, tutoring, interpreting, crafting JCIJ communications, and supporting immigrant-led partners.
