Categories
Resources

Resources: IM4HI Films


Detention into Death Sentence

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, fathers, sons, brothers & grandfathers reached out to us from inside Mesa Verde immigration detention center with an urgent plea: COVID-19 “will turn our detention into a death sentence.” They have pleaded with ICE to no avail. We created this video to amplify their voices. 


BLM from Inside Detention

In June 2020, we received a video from the men in Dorm C inside Mesa Verde. They wanted to let the world know that they stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Though they cannot be out on the streets with us, they are protesting the violence against Black Lives through a hunger strike led by Black immigrants. This is the first Black Lives Matter protest in ICE detention. Dorm C’s hunger strike is in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement, and against the system that kills, incarcerates, and detains Black lives. They highlight the criminal justice system’s clear disregard for human life. They demand change in our police, prisons, immigration, and criminal justice systems that are not designed to foster nor protect life. 


Using Her Quinceanera to Protest ICE

In 2018, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity supported the Lopez family by training an accompaniment team from First Congregational Church of Berkeley to assist them in their campaign to #FreeRaul. That year Raul’s daughter Alexa was turning 15 and would be celebrating her Quinceañera, but since her father has been detained, this was not an option. Nonetheless, she insisted on making a statement about the impact her father’s detention was having on her life. This video was filmed at our interfaith immigration vigil where Alexa performed her “Vals” coming of age dance outside the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, CA, where her father was detained. Her statement gained national media attention and public support for Raul’s bond hearing.


What Sanctuary Looks Like Today 

Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity is part of the National Sanctuary Movement, which provides support for and solidarity with individuals and communities targeted by detention, deportation, and exclusionary immigration policies.

Sanctuary: A Short History is a short documentary created by Theo Rigby on the history of sanctuary in San Francisco in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Sanctuary Movement. 

Trailer for the film Sanctuary Rising, a film created by Theo Rigby on families staying together in the face of deportation and communities turning faith into action.

From Root Causes to Sanctuary: learn more about families and congregations who have accompanied them


Bula

Charles Joseph is an example of one community member impacted by this prison and ICE collaboration. Charles is a father, husband, artist, musician, and Indo-Fijian leader. He came to the U.S. from Fiji as a permanent resident as a teenager. After being imprisoned at age 22, Charles transformed his life while serving his 13-year sentence by participating in violence prevention programs and developing his artistic talent. However, after winning parole, because of current policy, he was transferred directly into ICE detention and is now facing deportation. This film created by Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity in September 2020 describes Charles’ journey through our country’s inhumane carceral system.


Faith-Rooted Organizing Webinar Series

In our vision of a world without bars and borders, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity continues to work at the intersection of immigration detention and mass incarceration. In Spring 2020 we hosted a series of webinars on our faith-rooted organizing methodology and how we apply it to our three statewide campaigns:

Want to take a course on Faith-Rooted Organizing?  Access the course on-demand here


Categories
IM4HI Vision Resources

We Are Movement – IM4HI Song Video

Enjoy this wonderful song written for and about the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity!  Images include many of you who have been part of our work in the past few years.  Original music and lyrics by Benjasoul with lyrical help from the IM4HI staff. Video production by Sergio Jaime Lopez.

Categories
Justice Not Jails (JNJ) Resources

Faith & Reparations Toolkit

Dear Friends and Faith Partners,

I bring you New Year’s greetings from the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI). After several months of labor in love, IM4HI has produced a Faith & Reparations Toolkit for our faith and community partners, faith leaders, congregations, and the general public. The Faith & Reparations Toolkit is a timely and valuable document that can be readily utilized. We invite you to employ the toolkit during February, which earmarks the month-long celebration of African American history.

This February, we celebrate with the people whose descendants built this country with blood, sweat, tears, and free labor. An authentic celebration with our Black brothers and sisters requires that all of us, in particular white people, engage in introspection and Truth-telling. In short, we must come to grips with our nation’s ugly past and the silence and capitulation to the perpetual harms inflicted upon the African American community.

An authentic celebration also means that we must act. We must take concrete and substantive actions to repair the harm and atone these past and present injustices. The Faith & Reparation Toolkit recommends ways for congregations, faith leaders, and individuals to start now and move toward mending the past, healing the present, and transforming the future.

As the nation celebrates the national holiday in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we should pause and consider that the promissory note bequeathed to African Americans in the Declaration of Independence is still in default. The US government has made no substantive monetary compensation or investments on the debt owed to African Americans.

To be sure, our black brothers and sisters need a check. However, African Americans cannot wait for a blank check. Nor should they be pacified with empty promises. Now is the time for African Americans’ just due.

The Reparations Toolkit offers practical guidance and resources for religious and faith communities to engage in spiritual reflection for reparative justice that goes beyond writing a check. There is a broader path to repairing the profound harm done to African Americans. This path is grounded in the spirituality and souls of Black folk. After all, reparation is and must be a Spiritual Practice.

Please accept and engage this toolkit as a gift from IM4HI, and one that, hopefully, will lead to building a “beloved community.”

Rev. Dr. Larry Foy
IM4HI Los Angeles Regional Director