JCUA’s Immigration Committee continues our work to undo decades of harmful anti-immigrant policies
The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) created our Immigration Justice committee in late 2016, following the presidential election of Donald Trump. Four years later — as the Biden administration with a majority Democrat Congress begins — we continue our work with urgency and persistence.
Our committee advances immigration justice through diverse, but interconnected means: we participate in grassroots campaigns to reform immigration policies on the local and state levels, we do political education about the harmful systems affecting immigrant communities, and we develop relationships of solidarity with immigrant organizations across the city.
JCUA engages in grassroots organizing as a member of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and through the Chicago Immigration Working Group. Over the past year, the focus of our local campaigns have shifted to demanding financial relief for undocumented and mixed-status families — including growing access to healthcare and tax credits.
We’ve also engaged in learning about the workings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention and deportation, and how to dismantle the cooperation of Illinois’ local law enforcement with ICE. Last May, I partnered with fellow committee members Julia Rabin and Hannah Shevrin and organizer Anna Rubin to prepare a presentation on Detention & Decarceration for Jewish Action Day. While this event is typically a day of lobbying for the Welcoming Illinois platform in Springfield alongside other Chicagoland Jewish organizations, this past year we held a Zoom training for our member organizations instead.
Julia and Hannah prepared a set of slides that examined the history of the systems that criminalize immigration and how decades of policies have altered the system from the civil process for seeking legal immigration status to a multi-billion dollar system of surveillance and enforcement.
Around that same time last year, we were privileged to hear from Arianna Salgado of Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD) about the impact of ICE’s tactics on Chicago communities and the realities of those trapped in detention facilities in Illinois during COVID. Shortly after the meeting, a leader of OCAD was swiftly deported. We asked OCAD how we could be supportive and they asked us to raise funds for their COVID Mutual Aid Fund. With that, JCUA took action and held its first relational fundraising phonebank. Several committee members called friends and family members to talk about OCAD, the ways deportation destroys lives and communities, and to seek financial contributions to the Mutual Aid Fund. We successfully raised over $2,500 that night and raised awareness about these urgent issues.
Our education and fundraising work continues this month. At the beginning of March, we hosted a presentation on the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund at our monthly Immigration Committee meeting, led by Sara Zaleta from Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund Coalition, as well as Rachel Doherty and Becca Lubow. They laid out for us yet again the horrible injustices of the detention system here in the Midwest, and had us reflect on why eliminating detention in the US is important to us as individuals and a Jewish community. We will be hosting a fundraiser for the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund on March 14 at 5:00 pm (training) and March 18 at 6:00 pm (making fundraising calls). Join us here.
As the Biden administration begins, ICIRR is working with organizations across the country to hold the new administration accountable for its campaign promises of providing immigration relief by undoing recent federal actions from the previous administration, and working towards citizenship for all 11 million undocumented people in the US today. In undoing decades of harmful anti-immigrant policies, the ultimate goal is to dismantle the deep-rooted criminalization of immigrants. Seeking legal immigration status is a civil matter, and yet the current system incarcerates thousands of people each year, including many in for-profit detention centers. Many now frame the immigration issue as a matter of “good” versus “bad” immigrants, and it is necessary that we also dismantle this false narrative. Through a committee-maintained Federal Dashboard that I have put together with JCUA member Iszy Licht, our committee is learning about the Biden administration and Congressional platforms and how we can engage in national efforts, while also continuing to meet with our Illinois and Chicago elected officials to make our communities sanctuaries for all.
I joined the committee to transform my engagement into action and advocacy. I was and remain deeply troubled by the anti-immigrant rhetoric and systems in our country, especially the systems of detention and deportation that harm so many immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Throughout the more than four years of the Immigration Committee, our members have had many opportunities to meet with elected officials, plan programs and actions, and participate in coalition work. We continue to reflect and adjust as urgent actions and issues arise, especially as the current pandemic continues to hit communities who are already marginalized. Our work is always framed by our commitment to the Jewish value of justice, and we are trained in various organizing strategies that we employ. We take what we learn to build stronger partnerships and to directly impact the outcomes of these campaigns. To join the committee or learn more, reach out to Anna Rubin for a 1:1!