Community of Friends in Action
Communidad de Amigos en Acción
Please join us on Monday, December 3, at 12 noon for our Annual Meeting/Potluck luncheon at the home of Ruth Swinney, 423 Golf Course Drive, Leonia. Please RSVP to ruthswinney@gmail.com.
We will elect officers for 2019, review and approve the budget for next year, hear reports of activities during the past year, and discuss plans for the future. All are welcome.
An important but seldom discussed function of CoFiA is the work of our Wage Theft committee. Over the years, this determined group has followed up on many wage theft complaints, and a number of successes have been achieved.
To learn more about the work and find out how you could help, contact Norm Smith at joemanton@sprynet.com.
Margaret White, Chair of CoFiA, will lead the service at Central Unitarian Church on Forest Avenue in Paramus this coming Sunday, August 19, at 10:30 a.m. The topic will be the “Let’s Drive NJ” campaign, an effort that is promoting legislation to provide access to driver’s licenses for all eligible NJ drivers, including people who are undocumented.
Having a state-issued driver’s license would be a great benefit to the almost 500,000 undocumented residents of the state. The legislation would make New Jersey the 13th state to allow all its residents to apply for driver’s licenses, regardless of their immigration status. While the wording of the legislation would have certain restrictions–it would say “Federal Limits Apply” and would only provide a license to drive a motor vehicle and would not establish eligibility for employment, voter registration, or public benefits–it would be of great value both to those who would hold it and to the state itself. Having such a license, with the additional fees that would be collected, would add some $223 million a year to the state’s coffers; and the newly licensed drivers would be likely to purchase an estimated 84,000 additional automobiles, further boosting vehicle registration fees by about $3.9 million.
Furthermore, if all residents were able to have legal driver’s licenses, parents would be able to drive their children to all the activities suburban families value–school, sporting events, doctors’ appointments, play dates, cultural events and so forth. Many parents and other residents must drive with or without a license; we would all be safer if everyone has had to pass the tests required for legal licenses.
On Thursday, September 6, there will be a rally in support of the legislation at the State House Annex in Trenton, at 10:30 a.m. For more information and to arrange for transportation, text “letsdrive” to 973-577-6388. If you plan to attend and would like to connect with others from our area who are going, send an email to info@communityoffriendsinaction.org.
CoFiA’s Saturday Group–also known as the Delegados–will meet this coming Saturday, August 18, at 7:00 p.m., at St. Michael’s Church, Central Avenue at First St. Entrance to the meeting room is from First St.
Led by CoFiA volunteer organizer Elias Garcia, the group gets together to provide mutual support and explore topics of current interest. Presently they are reviewing the benefits of taking OSHA training, a process that if successful leads to an official federally-supplied OSHA certificate. These are very valuable to workers who want to document that they have particular skills and have received the approved training.
The speaker on August 18 will be Diana Mejia, chair of the group Wind of the Spirit, who is an OSHA trainer. Diana is a long-time friend of COFIA, and has spoken to our lunch program groups and led OSHA training frequently in the past.
CoFiA is saying goodbye to our summer intern, LeAnne Drum. A rising sophomore at Providence College, LeAnne worked with us through the summer and left us with very useful products.
For one thing, she surveyed social service and other agencies throughout the county and took careful note of which provided services to undocumented immigrants. This not-very-long list is now available from CoFiA in both English and Spanish in a brochure entitled “Community Resource Guide” or “Guia de Recursos.” To receive an electronic copy just sent an email to us at info@communityof friendsinaction.org.
In addition, she did research on other Immigrants Rights or immigrant-sympathetic organizations that we can recommend to our immigrant friends. This list is also available from our email address and includes familiar names such as the National Day Laborers Organization, Immigration Advocates Network, United We Dream, American Friends Service Committee, ACLU, KIND (Kids in Need of Defense), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and the Women’s Refugee Commission Inc.
LeAnne also attended many CoFiA meetings, including the Saturday night gatherings of the “delegados”, which has been meeting at St. Michael’s Church; Tuesday staff meetings; some wage-theft committee meetings, and others. She has also taught the ESL intermediate class at the library; we don’t usually offer ESL in the summer, but we found that several of the students were interested in continuing and with her help we were able to offer these Tuesday night sessions.
LeAnne also worked closely with Angelica, helping her with transportation issues and learning a lot about the needs of the Guatemalan community in the Palisades Park area. We will miss her and appreciate her smarts and her willingness to lend a hand wherever needed.
On Thursday, September 6, 2018, the “Let’s Drive New Jersey” campaign will hold a rally in support of drivers’ licenses for all New Jerseyans at the State House Annex in Trenton at 12 noon. This is an important campaign that seems to have every chance of being successful. Please spread the word widely. Our undocumented friends would benefit greatly if they can have licenses that allow them to drive safely and legally.
Many thanks to our friends in the Bergen County Immigration Strategy Group for these comprehensive but succinct summaries of the latest news:
The quote…
When Trump was elected, we knew that our communities would be under attack in ways we had never seen before, but we were in disbelief at how ruthlessly Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda went into play. It quickly became clear to us that the goal of this administration was to hunt down our people, lock us in detention camps and erase us from this country through any means they could. They tossed aside morality and justice out the window and directed deportation agents to implement his racist agenda…
— United We Dream
Send news items to Peter at: trailwalker@outlook.com. Reports above are from Bergen County Immigration Strategy Group (BCISG) members
CoFiA’s Saturday workers’ group, the delegados, met on July 14, 2018, at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, Central Avenue, Palisades Park. Thank you so much to Father Cho and the congregations of St. Michael’s for making the space available to us.
In the photo of a previous meeting of the group, we celebrated an honor recently presented to our organizer, Elias Garcia, as a Leader of the Community. Elias worked with Pedro Calan from St. Michael’s, as well as Angelica, our summer intern LeAnne,intern Enok Cho, Norm Smith and others to put the meeting together.
Here is a summary written by Norm:
We had an excellent, productive and participative meeting thanks to Elias’s leadership, Angelica’s guidance, Enok’s research, and LeAnne’s presentation. Elias opened the meeting, welcoming the attendees, announcing plans to build interest in a future OSHA training, and inviting the participants to bring acquaintances who might benefit. He then turned the program over to LeAnne, who distributed the new CoFiA Guide to Community Resources which she has been putting together this summer. She asked the group to review it, especially the health resource section. Members made very helpful suggestions. Elias noted the importance of prevention, and the group noted that town health fairs can be a source of preventative medicine–blood-pressure testing, cholesterol checks, etc. Every year the Health Department of Palisades Park invites CoFiA to participate in the town health fair.
LeAnne asked the group if the topics included in the Guide (banking, legal, health) are correct and they said they are. The Guide has been translated by CoFiA member Ruth Swinney.
Enok Choe presented a survey on participants’ attitudes toward education.
The consensus was that learning is important for both children and adults. Elias’ emphasis on OSHA training and the participation of some of the delegados in ESL underscores their commitment.
It was a packed meeting with lots of participation. Elias announced that the next meeting will be in mid-August, on the Saturday or Sunday of the weekend of August 18.
CoFiA encourages everyone who is concerned about the current tragedy of the separation of children and parents to show their dismay at a rally on Saturday, June 30 in Englewood. It is hard not to fall into anger and despair, but we must hold on and work to change what is happening. See you in Englewood!
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley attempted to tour an immigration detention center for undocumented children on Sunday, June 3, 2018, but was denied access. The police were also called.
This center is one of 27 different immigration facilities for children run by Southwest Key Programs, a private, nonprofit organization. After the event, Merkley said, “I think it’s unacceptable that a member of Congress is not being admitted to see what is happening to children whose families are applying for asylum. I decided to come here, go up to the door, and ask to be let in.” He had previously been in touch with the facility and announced his intention to visit. The center is in a former Walmart building, where the windows are blacked out and the doors are locked.
Thousands of children have been removed from immigrant parents in recent years, and it is believed that as many as 1500 of them are presently unaccounted for. Theoretically the children who are separated from parents or guardians are placed in foster homes that have been vetted, but even the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency admits that many cannot be found. In an interview on CNN on Monday, June 4, Senator Merkley confirmed the incident in Brownsville.
Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, referring to Senator Merkley’s experience said it was outrageous, and that Secretary Nielsen owes us answers for this practice. He said his team was also barred from touring a migrant processing center where families were being separated.
The video can be found on Senator Merkley’s web site. Moveon.org suggests people who are concerned about the issue call the office of Health and Human Services at 202-401-9215. Another organization–#Wherearethechildren–is also collecting information.