Immigrants Voice Program

Sandra Sanchez

Sandra Sanchez leads an “Immigration 101” workshop.

[The following letter was written to the City Council of Grimes, Iowa by Sandra Sanchez, AFSC Iowa Immigrants Voice Program Director.]

I am writing to express my opposition to the opening of a new facility for purposes of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in the City of Grimes. I am afraid that it will bring negative attention to the City of Grimes in two ways: increasing cases of racial profiling, and making of this detention facility the main face of the city. Is that what you want for Grimes?

Sara Crippen

Sara Crippen is a volunteer with AFSC Iowa’s Immigrants Voice Program and a senior at Central College in Pella, Iowa.

By Sara Crippen

Angela is from Usulután, the large capital of the province Usulután in El Salvador. She and her son fled the capital in 2000 because violence instigated by an international gang named Mara Salvatrucha was escalating within the city. The gang is involved in anything from human trafficking to merciless revenge killings to murderous robbery, and has been disintegrating the city’s standard of safety for a number of years.

Iraqi family in Des Moines June 2010

An Iraqi refugee family visits AFSC's offices in Des Moines. From left: Aseel Saaeed, Jody Mashek of AFSC, Anas, Ales held by Ashraf Rashad, and Asal (in front).

An Iraqi Family Finds its Way to Des Moines

An estimated four million people have been displaced because of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. This is a short story about five of them now living in Des Moines.

 Aseel Saaeed, Ashraf Rashad and their two children were Sunni Muslims living in a predominately Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and subsequent sectarian violence resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, and eventually Ashraf’s life was threatened.