Immigration, and the plight of refugee children crossing the border, have become a growing concern among Friends of Pacific Yearly Meeting. The Latin American Concerns Committee of PYM has appointed a special subcommittee devoted to this concern; and the Casa de los Amigos in Mexico City is deeply involved in immigration and migrant issues. Five Meetings—Santa Barbara, Inland Valley, Humboldt and Redwood Forest, and Sacramento-- have approved minutes of concern regarding the plight of refugee children crossing the border; and Orange Grove Meeting is currently considering one. There will be an interest group on this topic at Yearly Meeting session this summer.
You are invited to a conference call sponsored by the SCQM and PYM
Peace and Social Order. Anyone interested
in peace and justice concerns is welcome to take part.
Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 pm.
Call (805) 360-1000 and then enter the number 355219#
Please let me know if you have concerns or agenda items.
One of the concerns on our call will be how to address immigration
issues, particularly the plight of refugee children and family who are fleeing
the violence in Central America and Mexico. If you have other concerns, you
will have a chance to raise them as well.
We are especially moved
by the plight of mothers and children crossing our borders to escape from
violence in their home countries and encourage Friends to support local, state
and national efforts to insure they are treated humanely.
"The
foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as
yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. " –Leviticus
19:34
Here are the minutes approved by SCQM Friends and also the Sacramento
Meeting minute, which has not yet been posted.
Santa
Barbara Friends Meeting
Minute
on Child Refugees and Migration
January
11, 2015
In gratitude to Friends at Inland Valley,
Redwood Forest, and Humboldt Meetings for their faithful inspiration in similar
minutes
As you are well
aware, the humanitarian crisis on our southern border has burgeoned with tens
of thousands of young people, children, and mothers arriving due to the
violence and extreme poverty in their home countries. Imagine your children or
grandchildren being subject to such violence that you would take the chance to
send them traveling a treacherous route alone with only a 50-50 chance of
making it to safety. Imagine not only
the desperation but also the perseverance, judgment, and strength of each of
these young people.
We call on our government, with
this minute, to declare these young people and families refugees, allowing for
their access to resources and protection under the law. As a nation, we
can provide shelter, care and education as well as legal assistance to help them
navigate the immigration system. We can also encourage the Mexican government
to provide similar compassionate treatment for these young people, and we can
support nonprofit organizations in Mexico who are trying to help these children
and families. We can encourage and support non-violent efforts in their
countries of origin to alleviate the conditions that cause so many to
flee. We must consider how
our governmental policies influence violence and poverty in other countries.
Santa Barbara Friends Meeting encourages all acts of
compassion and kindness directed toward these refugees who have left their home
countries under conditions of fear and intimidation and have entered the United
States in the hopes that by crossing our borders they may find peace and
safety. We oppose their prolonged incarceration in detention facilities or
deportation back to their countries of origin where their lives are in danger. We
call for an end to the practice of for-profit detention of these families. We
join hands with all those who are working to provide these refugees with food,
shelter, medical care, due process in their immigration proceedings, and hope
for a better life.
Inland Valley Friends Meeting
-
Minute on Central American Humanitarian
Crisis
|
•
Message from: Sue Scott, Inland Valley Friends
Meeting, Clerk
•
Subject: Minute on Central American
Humanitarian Crisis.
Dear Friends,
Inland
Valley Friends passed this minute. We would like to share it with
you. Please consider if this speaks to you and/or your Meeting and move
forward as led. Here in the Inland Empire, you may have heard of the
confrontation in Murietta a week or so ago. The nonprofits as well as
the Catholic church are working towards helping.
In
the Light, Sue Scott, Clerk IVMM
Minute
on Central American Humanitarian Crisis - July 13, 2014 - #1/7/14
Inland
Valley Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) believes
that the current crisis facing our southern borders, is a humanitarian issue,
not an immigration issue. Central American children, arriving with their
mothers or alone, are fleeing from violence and poverty so extreme that they
are desperate to escape. They request asylum upon entering the United States.
The numbers have reached more than 65,000 overwhelming the Border Patrol (BP)
and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as immigration workers. ICE
has asked religious and nonprofit immigration groups for help.
Here
in the Inland Empire, support for the Catholic diocese and immigration
groups, such as Justice for Immigration Coalition, will go toward providing
safe places for the mothers and children to stay, once they are released from
ICE, until they can join their families already in the United State. Funds
are also need to provide food, clothing, and transportation. Other needs
include translation and local transportation services. We invite
Friends in the wider Quaker fellowship to join in local groups helping in
this crisis, educating others, and participating in letter writing campaigns
for immigration reform.
We call on our government, with this minute, to declare these
mothers and children refugees allowing for their access to resources and
protection under the law. We pray that the executive
and legislative branches of our government will finally work together towards
a comprehensive immigration reform program that will adequately address the
unique issues associated with these refugees response to the violence they
experience at home, including, but not limited to, increasing the number of
judges to handle the current crisis and to evaluate how our governmental
policies affect the issues of violence and poverty in other countries.
We
send this Minute to the wider Quaker Fellowship, and our government leaders.
Approved
at Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business - July 13, 2014
The minute I mention from Sacramento was
actually passed by the Peace committee, and is, as I mentioned, a minute for
action as follows:
The
Child Refugees and Migration Subcommittee of the Latin American Concerns
Committee of Pacific Yearly Meeting wrote and distributed a formal Leading of
the Spirit in Support of Unaccompanied Alien Children at the gathering in
July 2014. The final paragraph of the leading includes the following
statement: “We encourage Friends...to make economic or in- kind donations to
organizations that provide support to these children and the families that provide
care for them.” Our Peace and Social Concerns Committee has labored for
the past several months to find a way to implement the Leading and believes
that a way forward has been identified. It is to pay for the legal fees of
one or more children who are seeking asylum in the greater Bay Area. We have
found an organization that we trust, the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, an
established refugee organization in Berkeley that is supported by Friends
Meetings in the Bay Area, which provides these specific legal services for
Unaccompanied Child Refugees to seek to remain in the United States.
***
The
Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Sacramento Meeting approved the
following minute in support of this work.
March
2, 2015
Peace
and Social Concerns proposes that contributions be made to East Bay Sanctuary
Covenant (EBSC) to cover the legal fees ($1,420 each) for one or more
Unaccompanied Undocumented Child or Children (UAC) served by EBSC. This idea
flows from the document “Leading of the Spirit in Support of Child
Refugees from the Child Refugees and Migration Subcommittee of the Latin
American Concerns Committee of PYM.“ We are asking Sacramento Friends
Meeting for financial support to East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. This request
will also be sent to Finance Committee for seasoning of this minute.
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I just received this letter from Friends Committee on Legislation of California (FCLCA) and have decided to post it. FCLCA was founded in the 1950s during the McCarthy period, when California passed a slew of loyalty oaths. Since Quakers have a testimony against swearing oaths (Jesus told his disciples not to swear oaths: "Let you aye be aye and your nay nay"), Quakers founded this lobbying organization which has been a Quaker voice in Sacramento ever since. FCLCA takes up many unpopular causes, like prison reform, and has been a faithful advocate for the marginalized. This Earth Day letter from Kevan Insko links to FCLCA's latest newsletter and offers opportunities to make a difference in our state's laws.
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