It was one of those days, it was one of those days where the sunshine blew air kisses onto the river and it gleamed

My mother and I sitting on the edge of its sandy horizon where dirt splits water and grass like the prophet Moses

My mother’s hijab hugs her head the same way she cradles me and my sister

We stare into the river only ever daring to make eye contact through water

I watch her image the same way I do executions

She pulls the pin from her hijab, stabs it into the dirt, trying to find some way to hurt this land back

Youth use hip hop as a creative tool to address violence, social inequality, and to build a strong community in El Salvador.

Late Friday evening, Trump signed an executive order ending the Syrian Refugee program, suspending visas from seven majority-Muslim countries, and temporarily halting refugee resettlement. The following day, refugees from war-torn Syria, people with green cards, and travelers with valid visas started to get detained at airports around the country and even sent back to their point of origin. 

Ritch Yaure is a Communications Research Intern at AFSC.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders—including a dramatic and chilling expansion of immigration enforcement. On Friday, he signed the "Muslim Ban," an order curtailing refugee programs and banning all immigrants and visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Here's what we're reading to learn more:

The wall is the least aggressive part of Trump’s executive actions on immigration, by Dara Lind via Vox

“There is no way out but to enter, there is no freedom without truth, there is no struggle without tenderness. The soil is poisoned, but sometimes blossoms open and the moment is a doorway into blue light.” – From a poem by Lucy

I went to the women’s march in Washington, D.C. this past weekend. It was exhilarating to be among the 500,000 people who came out for it. To be so many, so tightly packed, that we couldn’t properly march. It was powerful to flood the mall and the streets of D.C. to oppose the rise of fascism. There was an eerie exhilaration.

Palestinian journalist and author Mohammed Omer has been documenting the realities faced by people and communities in Gaza for over a decade. In November and December AFSC hosted a tour to several US cities where Mohammed spoke about conditions in Gaza and the impact of the ten-year blockade. He also visited sites of AFSC’s work to end US based oppression on the border in San Diego, in Ferguson, MO, and at US private prisons in Arizona and was able to make connections with the occupation and oppression in Palestine.