Busy day on the Hill

I wound up meeting with 10 of NJ's 15 congressional offices yesterday, promoting the DREAM ACT and legislation to prevent violence against women.

I also ran to MA Congressman James McGovern, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and one of the most important champions of human rights in El Salvador. I first met McGovern when I interviewed him for my dissertation--about 11 or 12 years ago! McGovern became involved in El Salvador while working with the late Congressman Joe Moakley on the investigation of the 1989 massacre at the Jesuit Central American University (UCA).

Protect Central Americans Travelling Through Mexico!

Thanks to everyone who has been helping support the DREAM Act by calling Congress. Here is another important opportunity to help immigrants--many of who are robbed, raped, or killed on their way to the U.S. through Mexico.

Please call your Member of the House of Represenatives and urge him to sign a letter to Secretary of State Clinton being circulated by Representative Raul M. Gijalva. It calls on her to regularly incorporate the rights of migrants in Mexico as part of our diplomacy with the Mexican government. You can read a recent Amnesty International news release for background on this important issue!

Good op-ed piece on the DREAM Act

There is a good op-ed piece on the DREAM Act in the Times of Trenton: http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/oped/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1290840344228120.xml&coll=5. Amnesty supports this important piece of legislation to create a path to citizenship for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors.

America's Secret ICE Castles

The Nation has a good artilce on immigrant detention, America's Secret ICE Castles. It quotes Amnesty's Sarnata Reynolds and refers to the Jailed Without Justice Report.

Sires Cosponsors Immigrant Detention Reform

Great news! Congressman Albio Sires (NJ13) joined fellow NJ Representatives Holt, Payne and Rothman in supporting the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, HR1215. This legislation addresses the most serious flaws identified in Amnesty’s Jailed Without Justice Report:
• Extreme over reliance on detention without considering effective and less expensive alternatives.
• Lack of due process allowing those imprisoned to challenge the grounds of their detention.
• Inhumane prison conditions for those who are detained.

If your Congressman is not on the list above, please call his office and urge him to cosponsor this important bill.

Amnesty is also supporting two of Senator Robert Menendez’s bills that address these issues, S 1549 and S 1550. Wherever you live in NJ, please call Senator Lautenberg’s office and urge him to support these bills!

Amnesty is currently organizing a lobbying week (the week of November 11th) across the country to support this legislation. We are also going to be focusing on closing Guantanamo and supporting the ratification of a women’s rights treaty (CEDAW). Please go to http://www.amnestyusa.org/delegation/list.php to find out more!

Immigrant Detention Vigil in Elizabeth

I will be briefly speaking about Amnesty's efforts on immigrant detention at this vigil tomorrow.



Larry



SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11



Come to the IRATE & First Friends 11th annual vigil

at the Elizabeth Detention Center



March and pray in solidarity with the thousands of immigrants being held in detention throughout the country.



2 pm at the corner of Dowd Street and Evans Street, Elizabeth, NJ



You are cordially invited

to a Spaghetti Supper & Teach In after the vigil on

Sunday evening, 10/11/09,

4 pm at the St Joseph Social Service Center

118 Division Street, Elizabeth, NJ



This supper will include presentations by invited speakers:



Marisol Conde-Hernandez, Rutgers undergraduate & activist

and

Msgr. William Reilly, member NJ Blue Ribbon Committee on Immigration Policy



Donations: Adults $25, Students $15, Children under 10 free

---------------------------

Space is limited so please make your reservation NOW by e-mailing your name and the number in your party to firstfriends2@juno.com.



Then please mail your check for the donation to:



IRATE & First Friends, 321 South Broad St., Elizabeth, NJ. O7202



When you check is received, we will confirm your reservation by e-mail.



Any question? Call 908-965-0455

November Lobby Week

During the week of November 11th, Amnesty activists across the country will be meeting with their local congressional offices to urge them to take action three of our top priorities:
• Fix the broken immigrant detention system to ensure due process and treat people humanely.
• End torture and take effective measures to ensure that it does not happen again.
• Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Amnesty believes that it is now a key moment where grassroots pressure could help convince Congress to move forward on all three of these issues.

You can volunteer to organize a visit to your local congressional office at http://www.amnestyusa.org/delegation/leader.php?d=013&s=NJ &ICID=G0909A01.

Or, you can look for an existing delegation to take part in at http://www.amnestyusa.org/delegation/list.php?ICID=G0909A01.

Please send letters to the editor on immigrants' rights

There is a lot of coverage of immigrants’ rights rallies in today’s NJ papers. Please write letters to the editor in response to articles such as

http://www.nj.com/morristown/jamieduffy/index.ssf/2009/09/pastors_and_people_call_for_an.html

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_722821a4-1bca-5a28-b914-ea3a3e2eb8db.html

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090915/NEWS/909150366

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/09/jersey_city_vigil_held_today_f.html

Be sure to mention Amnesty’s Jailed Without Justice Report (http://www.amnestyusa.org/uploads/JailedWithoutJustice.pdf) and call on Congress to support HR 1215, The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act. (You can thank Holt, Rothman, and Payne for their support.)

Call Congress to Support Immigrant Detention Reform!

This week, activists across the United States are meeting with their local congressional offices to support HR 1215, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act. Even if you aren’t taking part in a meeting, you can still help out by calling your Congressman’s Washington, DC office and urging him to support this important legislation to:

1. Imprison accused illegal aliens only when he or she is shown to be a flight risk or a danger to the community. By relying on effective alternative procedures, we can humanely assure that the accused show up for their hearings while reducing costs and strain on the overburdened prison system.
2. Ensure that each and every person who is detained has the opportunity to challenge the grounds of his or her detention. This is necessary because legal residents and even U.S. citizens have had to spend months in prison while waiting for their deportation hearings.
3. Create enforceable standards of humane treatment for those who are detained, whether in federal, state, local, or private facilities.

NJ Congressmen Rush Holt, Donald Payne, and Steve Rothman have already agreed to cosponsor this important bill! If you live in one of their districts, please call to say “thank you.”

If you live in another district, please call your Congressman and urge him to support HR 1215.

You can find out the name and contact for your representative by entering your zip code at www.house.gov.

Rothman Supports Immigrant Detention Reform

Congressman Steve Rothman's office has informed me that he has agreed to support HR 1215, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act!

As you may know, Amensty activists around the country are currently organizing a lobby week in support of this legislation, which address the three main problems identified in Amnesty's Jailed Without Justice report.

Urge Congress to Reform Immigrant Detention!

One of our nation’s greatest strengths is the wide diversity of its population, built on the arrival of immigrants of all social classes from every part of the globe. Those of us living in New Jersey can be especially proud of the wide array of cultures that have contributed to the development of our communities.

Unfortunately, this asset is undermined by a judicial system that places of the burden of proof on those accused of being illegal immigrants rather than on those accusing them. As Amnesty’s Jailed Without Justice report documents, legal residents and even U.S. citizens can be arrested and jailed on charges of immigration violations WITHOUT having the opportunity to go before a court and say, “on what grounds am I being held?” Furthermore, those arrested are almost always subject to mandatory detention, regardless of factors such as flight risk or danger to the community. This winds up costing taxpayers $95 per detainee per day! Since 1996, the number of individuals in immigrant detention has tripled! This problem is compounded by the inhumane treatment that many detainees receive, such as being housed with violent offenders and denied adequate medical care.

Congressmen Rush Holt and Donald Payne are already cosponsors of the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (HR 1215), a bill that would correct this horrible situation. Please help convince the rest of our state’s representatives and our senators to join them. Activists across the country will be meeting their elected officials’ offices on this issue during the week of June 29th to July 5th. You can volunteer to organize a meeting or look for an existing meeting to join at http://www.amnestyusa.org/immigrant-detention/join-a-delegation/page.do?id=1011618.

Payne Becomes 2nd NJ Rep to Cosponsor Immigrant Detention Reform

Earlier this week, Congressman Donald Payne joined fellow NJ Representative Rush Holt in supporting HR 1215, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act. This important legislation addresses the problems identified in Amnesty’s recent report, Jailed Without Justice.

As you know, the state of New Jersey is home to many immigrants and there families. All members of our congressional delegation should therefore join Holt and Payne in supporting legislation that will guarantee due process, ensure that detention is used only when necessary, and improve inhumane prison conditions!

Report from DC Lobbying!

Last weekend was the annual meeting for Legislative Coordinators at AI’s DC office. On Monday, I met with staff members from the offices of
· Rep. Chris Smith
· Rep. Rush Holt
· Rep. Albio Sires
· Rep. Leonard Lance
· Rep. Steve Rothman
· Rep. Bill Pascrell
· Rep. Donald Payne
· Sen. Frank Lautenberg
· Sen. Robert Menendez

One of the main issues I raised was the horrible state of immigrant detention documented in Amnesty’s Jailed without Justice report. We asked House members to support HR 1215, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act to:
· Ensure that detainees can challenge the grounds for their detention (They may be legal residents or even citizens, for example.)
· Consider alternatives to detention before sending accused illegal immigrants to prison.
· Create enforceable standards to ensure the humane treatment of detainees, regardless of whether they are in federal, state, or local facilities.

I am happy to report that Congressman Holt had already cosponsored this important piece of legislation! Amnesty hopes that similar legislation will soon be introduced in the Senate.

I also followed up on the national in-district lobbying campaign to establish accountability on torture. I urged members of both chambers to:
· Support and independent commission to investigate the policies that led to torture and produce recommendations to prevent it from happening again.
· Call upon Attorney General Eric Holder to launch criminal investigations of torture and prosecutions and where there is sufficient evidence.
· Write to the President calling for an end to the abuse of “state secrets” arguments to refuse Freedom of Information requests. (We are particularly interested in the CIA Inspector General’s 2004 Report.)

Naturally, it would be great if you could follow up with a call to your Congressman, as well as Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez!