A Toolkit for Immigrant Sabbath from the Interfaith Immigration Coalition

Immigrant Rights Sunday

Send an e-mail in support of immigration reform and family unity

Send an online message urging your U.S. Senators and Representative support immigration reform that unites separated families. In addition, the most important thing for all of us to do is to be in contact with our members of Congress and to communicate our community's strong support for immigration reform - through in-person meetings with elected represented, events, letters, and calls. For more assistance, contact Yvette Schock at Church World Service yschock@churchworldservice.org.

Visit Postville, Iowa, site of one of the largest workplace raids

"I went on the trip to Postville and Decorah with my mind pretty much made up about the illegal immigrant. However after hearing about the immigration raid on the meat processing plant in Postville and seeing the awesome commitment of the folk in both places my mind and heart was changed. What an awesome experience!"   a recent participated in a Postville/Decorah delegation

On May 12, 2008, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement conducted one of the largest raids in United States history in the rural community of Postville, Iowa.  The raid devastated the community and could have been much worse but for the response of faith communities in Postville and Decorah, Iowa.  Those faith communities now have incredible stories to tell of the work they have done to meet need, re-build their culturally diverse communities, and  respond to the immigration crisis in our nation.  This two- to three-day delegation is an opportunity to see God's hand at work in the people of Postville and Decorah, and to ask deep questions about how we might respond to the current immigration crisis locally. For more information, contact Rev. Mike Mulberry, 815-234-8777 or the Co-Chair of Decorah Interfaith, Rev. Carol Kress, 563-379-2925.

To learn more about the experiences of one delegation, go to the Illinois Maya Ministry website.


Host a Movie screening and Discussion

• Made in LA tells the story of three immigrant women who discover the power of their collective voice as they stand together in unity against exploitation by the garment manufacturer that employs them. Study guides from the United Methodist Church and the PBS Point of View show   
  
• PAPERS: Stories of Undocumented Youth (2008) tells stories of the approximately 2 million children who were born outside the United States but raised in this country, and the challenges they face when they turn 18. They leave high school without a future: unable to work, unable to pay in-state tuition to attend college, and unable to serve in the military. These young people were educated in American schools, hold American values, and know only the United States as home. But the usual paths into adult life are closed to them. The film supports The DREAM Act, a bill pending in Congress that would allow undocumented young people to be eligible for a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for completion of a college degree or two years of military service.
  
• In the Shadow of the Raid This film shows the impact of a raid by immigration authorities on a Kosher meat plant in the American heartland, arresting nearly 400 undocumented workers. A Guatemalan village wept. This raid, the biggest in US history, severed an economic lifeline to one of the poorest corners of the Western Hemisphere while pushing an Iowa farm town to the brink of collapse.