Immigration

Immigrates Make good neighbors by the numbers

From Fortune 500 companies to spelling bees and science fairs, immigrants and their children figure prominently as achievers, entrepreneurs and innovators across our country.  They also make enormous contributions to the economy. 

The American Friends Service Committee has signed a joint letter to the FBI’s Advisory Policy Board seeking an end to the FBI’s facilitation of the deeply flawed Secure Communities program.  Under the program, local law enforcement and the FBI share fingerprinting data with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency.  ICE touts the program as a crime fighting tool. It is set to take effect across the country by 2013.

We stand with immigrants petition image

The AFSC's NC Immigrant Rights Program has been involved in an effort to monitor immigrant-related bills at the state legislature, promote pro-immigrant bills and fight anti-immigrant initiatives, including the NC House Select Committee on the State's Role in Immigration Policy.  Together with our allies, we are releasing the following petition to make it clear to our representatives that we oppose any efforts to alienate and harm our immigrant brothers and sisters, especially an Arizona/ Alabama type regressive immigration law.

Rev. Michael Lapian

With Rev. Maren Tirabassi of the Union Congregational Church looking on, Rev. Harold Michael Lapian of the Indonesian Christian Reformed Fellowship in Dover explains to Senator Shaheen's staff about the persecution of Christians in certain areas of Indonesia.  

The threatened deportation of 37 Indonesian immigrants brought a delegation of New Hampshire clergy and lay activists to the Manchester offices of Senator Jeanne Shaheen and the federal immigration enforcement agency January 24 to call for the deportations to be cancelled.

Catholic sisters' billboard campaign for immigrant rights

This billboard on Ingersoll avenue in Des Moines is part of a Catholic sisters' campaign for immigrant rights in Iowa.

(Reprinted from a press release. For more info: http://www.facebook.com/catholicsisters)

OSHA2011Elizabeth

Group photo at the Consulate of El Salvador, Elizabeth, 12/2011

For several years, AFSC Immigrant Rights Program has had a partnership with the federal agency - Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration (OSHA) to provide 10-hour safety and health training to day laborers in NJ.  This Decemeber, twenty day laborers from La Esperanza in Elizabeth, completed the training and recieved certificates at the Consulate of El Salvador. The graduation ceremony was held the evening before International Human Rights Day.