Category: Updates

For Immediate Release: January 25, 2021
Contact: Jose Servin, jservin@ciyja.org, 714-728-2520

Nationwide – On the first week of office, the Biden administration released a memo placing a limited moratorium on deportations for 100 days. This, accompanied by a list of immigration related executive orders aimed at rolling back destructive Trump-era policies, comes as much-needed relief for immigrant communities that have been resisting xenophobic attacks for the last several years. We believe these initial actions, along with Biden’s US Citizenship Act of 2021 proposed immigration bill, are a template for strong policy. We recognize, however, that federal policy change will likely be challenged by Republican provocateurs serving a white nationalist base, and we urge California leaders to use their authority to take complementary and decisive action to care for immigrants in the state. We call on California Governor Gavin Newsom and the incoming Attorney General to build on President Biden’s commitments by enacting a moratorium on all state transfers to ICE to conduct a thorough inspections of ICE detention facilities in California, and to call for the release of community members from ICE detention, where they remain at extremely high risk of contracting COVID-19.

The Biden Administration’s policy changes are a step towards addressing the needs of immigrant communities, but there remains significant work to do. There are still community members who are targeted by a racist criminal legal system and are now in ICE detention who are thus far left out of President Biden’s relief efforts. We continue to demand justice and liberty for everyone who is currently detained by ICE, so that they may fight their legal cases with dignity, alongside their families and communities.

“There can be no exclusion to humane treatment because all life is sacred and we must face the tensions of inequality to find justice for all. You can save lives by expediting the release of all individuals from cages. Incarceration feeds on the fear of the public’s ignorance in the name of protection. I ask elected leaders to please end transfers from prisons and jails to ICE cages. We must end the cruel and excessive punishment the immigrant population has been facing.”

—Charles Joseph, a community organizer and liberated leader formerly detained at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield, California.

These concrete steps seek to advance racial justice and redress the anti-Black pipeline of criminalization that funnels oppressed communities from the criminal legal system into immigration proceedings. In the coming weeks, we expect the Biden administration to more fully address this issue and to root out the systems of trauma and persecution that torment immigrant communities. We embrace the administration’s early action as initial steps and encourage bolder action that will dismantle all immigrant prisons and end the criminalization of migrant communities.

The Dignity not Detention Coalition includes California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA), Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ), Interfaith for Human Integrity (IM4HI), Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), Freedom for Immigrant (FFI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Pangea Legal Services, Centro Legal De La Raza, SIREN, Detention Watch Network (DWN), Human Impact Partners (HIP), ACLU – SoCal, AFSC – San Diego, Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition (LBIRC), California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ), Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRNN), and others.

If you were unable to join us for our “Radical King, Prophetic Voice” event honoring the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please enjoy our recording, above.

Thank you to everyone who donated! Because of you we exceeded our fundraising goal and have fully funded our Spiritual Activist in Residence position! If you would still like to support, click here to donate.

Musician Benjamin Mertz (pictured above), says, “Radical King? Is there any other?!”

“We dream of a country where the politics of fear, white supremacy and American nationalism are supplanted by diversity, equity, equality, inclusion, freedom, and justice.

We dream of a country where native-born and naturalized citizen, immigrant and migrant, neighbor and stranger, host and foreigner, young and old, straight and gay and, where Blacks, Browns, Asians, Whites, and Indigenous people of the land, strive to live peacefully together in view of our common humanity and interdependence.”

– Rev. Larry Foy

Dear Community,

We pray today for calm and peace and respect for our Constitution and democracy.
We pray in gratitude to the many organizers, volunteers and voters who helped to bring about this historic moment with the election of Rev. Raphael Warnock, the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Georgia. We know this does not happen without a long term effort to build community power and promote values of racial and economic and gender equity. We offer gratitude to Black organizers and the multi-racial, cross sectional coalitions of people who toiled to lift up the vision of a collective future that we can believe in.
We are deeply saddened that on this solemn day when President-elect Joseph R. Biden was to be confirmed by Congress as the 46th President of the U.S., our democracy and our Constitution was trampled on by thousands of Americans who joined the coup attempt by Donald Trump to overthrow the results of the November election. We decry all efforts to misguide, manipulate, threaten and coerce through violence or force. We lament the ugly reality that their actions expose: the deep roots of white supremacy, violence, and anti-democratic power that run deep in American soil.
As people of faith, we will not bend nor cower to hatred, violence and evil on any front. Rather, we will adhere to the divine command, “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.”
We pray today for all those who are fearful and frightened.
We pray for the safety of all in our country.
We pray for those who need relief, support, vaccines, a medical bed or medical supplies, release from prisons, jails, detention centers in the midst of COVID outbreaks, a warm place to sleep, a living wage, and a re-ordering of our national priorities.
We pray for our elected public servants in this moment, that their lives be safe and that they have the courage to act with integrity and moral conscience.
We pray also for those who took part in the insurrectionist actions today, for Donald Trump, the members of congress who have willingly sanctioned and supported demagoguery. We pray that somehow we may reach them, connect to them with a vision of our common humanity and shared future.
We pray for our betterment as a nation that we strive, not to be the most powerful nation, but to be the most fair, the most equitable, the most compassionate. May we commit together to the building of that “more perfect union.”

Love,
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

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“Soñamos con un país donde las políticas del miedo, la supremacía blanca y el nacionalismo estadounidense sean suplantadas por la diversidad, la equidad, la igualdad, la inclusión, la libertad y la justicia.

Soñamos con un país donde el ciudadano nativo o el naturalizado, inmigrante y migrante, vecino y desconocido, anfitrión y extranjero, joven y viejo, heterosexual y gay y, donde negros, morenos, asiáticos, blancos e indígenas de la tierra, se esfuerzan por vivir juntos en paz en vista de nuestra
humanidad común e interdependencia.”

– Rev. Larry Foy

Estimada comunidad,
Oramos hoy por la calma, la paz y el respeto a nuestra Constitución y democracia.
Oramos en agradecimiento a los numerosos organizadores, voluntarios y votantes que ayudaron a lograr este momento histórico con la elección del reverendo Raphael Warnock, el primer afroamericano electo al Senado de los Estados Unidos del estado de Georgia. Sabemos que esto no sucede sin un esfuerzo a largo plazo para construir poder comunitario y promover valores de equidad racial, económica y de género. Agradecemos a los organizadores negros y a las coaliciones multirraciales y transversales de personas que trabajaron para levantar la visión de un futuro colectivo en el que podemos creer.
Nos entristece profundamente que en este día solemne en el que el presidente electo Joseph R. Biden iba a ser confirmado por el Congreso como el 46° presidente de los EE. UU., Nuestra democracia y nuestra Constitución fueron pisoteadas por miles de estadounidenses que se unieron al intento de golpe de Estado de Donald Trump para derrocar los resultados de las elecciones de noviembre. Condenamos todos los esfuerzos por desviar, manipular, amenazar y coaccionar mediante la violencia o la fuerza. Lamentamos la fea realidad que exponen sus acciones: las raíces profundas de la supremacía blanca, la violencia y el poder antidemocrático que están profundamente arraigados en suelo estadounidense.
Como personas de fe, no nos doblegaremos ni nos acobardamos ante el odio, la violencia y la maldad en ningún frente. Más bien, nos adherimos al mandamiento divino de “actuar con justicia, amar la misericordia y caminar humildemente con nuestro Dios.”
Oramos hoy por todos aquellos que están temerosos y asustados.
Oramos por la seguridad de todos en nuestro país.
Oramos por quienes necesitan alivio, apoyo, vacunas, una cama médica o suministros médicos en medio de brotes de COVID, oramos por la liberación de prisiones, cárceles, centros de detención, un lugar cálido para dormir, un salario digno y un reordenamiento de nuestras prioridades nacionales.
Oramos por nuestros servidores electos públicos en este momento, que sus vidas se encuentren seguras y que tengan el valor de actuar con integridad y conciencia moral.
Oramos también por los que han participado en las acciones insurreccionales hoy, por Donald Trump, los miembros del Congreso que voluntariamente han sancionado y apoyado la demagogia. Oramos para que de alguna manera podamos llegar a ellos, conectarnos con ellos con una visión de nuestra humanidad común y un futuro compartido.
Oramos para que nos esforcemos como nación, no para ser la nación más poderosa, sino para ser la más justa, la más equitativa, la más compasiva. Que juntos nos comprometamos a construir la “unión perfecta.”

Love,
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity