Dispatches from Willamette Heights
This is a “living” post stemming from a gathering of neighbors on February 22nd at the house of Maxine and Rob Dexter. In addition to maintaining a calendar of relevant events on Google, we’ll be posting tidbits of news, reports, and other interesting items.
If you’d like to contribute to the calendar or have information you’d like to convey, please send me a note at eyesandler@gmail.com. Information about the postcards below.
Note: I fully understand that, while we all share a vision of a more progressive, tolerant, and kind society, there are myriad nuances between all of our world views. As such, since this post is publicly under my name, at times I may exert some editorial control. I am also happy to give a quick tutorial on how to set up a separate Medium account. Thank you for understanding.
For those interested in immigrant rights, Maxine contacted Professor Stumpf at Lewis and Clark Law School, who is the point person working there for immigrant rights. She sent the following information:
The best places for information about rights are ACLU-OR: http://aclu-or.org/content/information-ice-raids-oregon, AIC: http://immigrationimpact.com/2016/11/10/know-rights-refresher-immigrants/, and NILC: https://www.nilc.org/get-involved/community-education-resources/know-your-rights/
As for projects that would use funding well, there are three kinds of needs that the group could consider funding:
- direct services to immigrants, like Immigration Counseling Services or Catholic Charities, etc.
- litigation, like ACLU-OR which is co-counsel in a suit against the Muslim-majority country ban, or the Oregon Law Center which brought a case that established that when police hold immigrants in jail as a favor to ICE, they are acting unlawfully.
- policy: organizations that construct policy solutions to immigration problem, like figuring out the need for representation of detained noncitizens with meritorious cases but no way to pursue them from where they are incarcerated.My favorite place to fund is the Innovation Law Lab, run by a law school alum Stephen Manning, who is an incredibly effective civil rights immigration lawyer. He is involved with or behind every major immigrant rights action in Oregon and is also working on a national level to try to end family detention.
I’m starting an immigration policy center at the law school, which is partnering with Innovation Law Lab and Causa to hold a stakeholders meeting to create an immigration plan for Oregon on March 18. The policy center right now has no name, no website, and no funding, but has as its assets one highly motivated law professor, a group of highly motivated and effective students, and is already filling a clear gap in Oregon’s immigration-related resources. That immigration policy center might be a future source of collaboration with Maxine’s group
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Maxine also noted that there is also a group of law students going to a detention center in Dilley, Texas over spring break to try to help women and families get legal support to avoid deportation. The students are paying their own way and are looking for funding to cover their travel expenses. Here is the link if you wish to send some financial support their way: https://www.gofundme.com/send-lc-law-students-to-dilley-tx (Source: Maxine Dexter maxine.dexter@gmail.com))
Muslim Educational Trust (www.metpdx.org) is holding its “Silk Road Cultural Diplomacy Part 4 — Latino Night” on Saturday, March 25th 2017 from 5:30 p.m. — 8:30 p.m. at the MET Community Center (10330 SW Scholls Ferry Road, Tigard, OR 97223). There will be a panel, followed by a potluck. (Source: Curt Bell curt.c.bell@gmail.com)
For those interested in helping out on the immigration issues, please visit. http://www.latnet.org/community-resources/ This is an excellent organization I have known and worked with for years. They have this great resource kit for helping immigrants. I donate regularly. (Source: Linda McKim-Bell mckimbells@comcast.net)
On March 11 at 10am PT, ACLU is launching People Power, their new effort “to engage grassroots volunteers across the country and take the fight against Donald Trump’s policies not just into the courts, but into the streets.”(Source: Linda McKim-Bell mckimbells@comcast.net)
A report from MA on the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice’s meeting on 2/24/17:
The first speaker at the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice (IMIrJ) sanctuary/deportation press conference on Friday at Augustana Lutheran Church was Francisco Aguirre, a labor organizer who’d been in sanctuary at Augustana. He spoke of his life having been saved as a result, because if he was sent back to El Salvador, he’d have been killed, like a friend of his. Other speakers, all bringing their communities together in support of sanctuary and in opposition to deportation, were from Causa; VOZ Workers Education Project; Unite Oregon; Familias en Accion; Community Alliance of Tenants; Muslim Center of NE Oregon; NAACP; Havurah Shalom; IMIrJ; Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon; and Augustana itself.
A report from Linda McKim-Bell
Subject: A Very Important Meeting Report: Oregon and Portland Public Officials will Defend Immigrants and Travelers
Dear Friends,
Last evening Curt and I attended a very important public meeting at the Muslim Education Trust in Tigard. During the meeting it was announced that the ACLU of Oregon is challenging the Trump ban in court. There were cheers all around.
There were a thousand people attending, mostly civil leaders, interfaith leaders and the Muslim and Immigrant Communities.
What we saw was a community and a large group of public officials and civic leaders who are determined to not comply with Trump’s unconstitutional ban on immigration and travel.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, City Council members Amanda Fritz, and Nick Fish were present as well as the mayors of Beaverton, Tigard, and Hillsboro. There were officials from Multnomah County as well.
Our Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said that Portland would refuse to comply with the immigration and travel ban and would fight it in court. He said if we lose in court, then we would have to stand up for “What is Right” and defend the constitution. Several in the audience shouted: “Civil Disobedience”.
First we heard from the Faith Community, Imams, Rabbis,
And Interfaith activist Christians. The interfaith community is staying strong against the immigration and travel bans.
The Legal Community: ACLU of Oregon, the US Atty. for Oregon, Oregon Trial Lawyers Assoc., Immigration Lawyers Assoc., the State of Oregon Office of Civil Rights. And there were many atty’s present in the audience. Over 150 atty’s have been at Portland airport and several went to Sea Tac airport to help travelers. Atty’s here are setting up workshops for immigrants who need legal help and these will soon be announced. These legal leaders, excepting the US Att’y for Oregon,
The Law Enforcement Community: Portland, Tigard, Hillsboro Chiefs of Police. These chiefs of police said that they would not be doing the work of the federal government and they would not be rounding up immigrants. They are refusing to comply and upheld the constitution of the U.S.
Representatives from Refugee Settlement Agencies, IRCO, Catholic Charities and EMO said that their funding would be cut during the 120 days of Trump’s ban and that they would have to lay off employees and their agencies would be very difficult to reconstitute. They asked the public for volunteer help. Please contact them if you can help out.
Speakers urged attendees to reach out to their neighbors or any immigrants that you know to help them and ask them what they might need to feel safe and to ensure that they know about legal help resources.
This meeting was a stunning and robust response to the crisis that our country faces at this critical time. I wanted to share this with friends to reassure you that we as individuals are not alone and that the Portland and Oregon Community will stand together through this crisis.
As Ever,
Linda McKim-Bell (mckimbells@comcast.net)
Additional Resources:
POSTCARDS ARE FREE to those who can pick them up from my house. Send me an email to coordinate. To order a pack (includes postcard stamps) for people not in the area, please order from www.resistance-postcards.com.
From Mark Alter: SURJ PDX Facebook page for Showing Up for Racial Justice, Portland. This is a large and fast-growing group of white people organizing other white people on behalf of racial justice. And in case that strikes you as odd, it comes out of the civil rights movement from nearly 50 years ago, when the word from the black community was we haven’t got time, you’ve got to organize yourselves. An extensive listing of events, actions, articles, ideas, and data.
From Irene: Check out the Sister District Project, which will pair “blue state” districts with “red state” districts for the upcoming races for the House and Senate. If you’re, like me, feeling useless for living in a blue state, this could be a meaningful and impactful way to help progressives emerge in places where the politicians are still stuck in the Dark Ages.
