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Mass Resist the Raids Network Retreat
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
3:59pm
Location:
Encuentro 5 33 Harrison St. Boston 5th floor
Contact:
Description:
Date: Saturday, Jan 30th 2009
Time: 12-5pm
Venue: Encuentro 5 (33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor, Boston MA 02111) Chinatown stop on Orange Line
We are inviting all immigrant rights organizations in Massachusetts to join us for a strategic planning session for 2010. As our broken immigration system destroys more lives and families, we have a fighting chance this year to use our strengths to win a comprehensive and just immigration policy.
In the first year of the Obama presidency, we were told that the Department of Homeland Security would transfer immigration enforcement authority to employers. To the contrary, we are witnessing that ICE has only increased its harassment of our familes and communities. The covert and sudden nature of these raids, like the recent one in Foxboro, continues to traumatize our communities. Inhumane detention in substandard conditions only makes things worse, while draining precious taxpayer money to make profits for private prisons.
Also, our brothers and sisters from Haiti who have been criminalized have received no assurance that their deportation orders will be revoked, even though their homeland is completely destroyed and chances to rebuild their lives there are slim. TPS should be granted for all.
The US government has finally agreed with the immigrant community, and announced recently that our Haitian sisters and brothers criminalized by ICE, including more than 30,000 undergoing deportation, will now qualify for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). However, this is only a short-term bandaid, and the need for a permanent legislative solution for more than 12 million other undocumented immigrants is urgent.
Mostly important, we still do not have a strong signal from the Obama administration and our representatives in Congress about a fair and just immigration reform. In Massachusetts, advocacy groups have been working with Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois on a new bill.
The current political scenario under the Obama administration gives little hope by itself. It is time for us in Massachusetts to strengthen our work through a united and coordinated effort. The Massachusetts Resist the Raids! Network wants to work with you to accomplish our common goals. Resist the Raids! Network is a grassroots-led effort to stop the raids and deportations in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
Help to spread the word about this retreat, and organize a small delegation from your town to Boston on January 30th.
Objectives: