[2187] in peace2
IMPORTANT: Concrete Way to Help Protect Immigrants!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Thu Jan 30 13:44:13 2003
Message-Id: <200301301838.NAA04902@gold.mit.edu>
To: alsmith@MIT.EDU
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Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 13:38:34 -0500
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
The following training is happening at the ACLU friday evening.
Please join me as I head over. Meet at **6pm in my office, 8-101**
and we will take the T together. Please email me to let me know
to expect you. Or meet us there at the ACLU office, 3rd floor,
99 Chauncy St. in Boston. And please fwd this invite as widely as
possible.
Tell everyone you know to get involved because we must protect
our most vulnerable residents, and we must take an active stand
against racism and xenophobia. Don't hesitate to contact me if you
have any questions. If we don't stand up for these people, (as
the poem goes) who will be lest to stand for us?
In hope,
Aimee
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CALLING ALL SUPPORTERS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES AND IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS:
WHO: The American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee of Massachusetts
(ADCMA), needs you
WHAT: Volunteer to interview foreigners before they go into the
Immigration and Naturalization Service offices for mandatory
registration
WHERE: Islamic Society of Boston, Cambridge, MA
WHEN: Training Evening- Friday, January 31,
First Monitoring Day- Sunday February 2
WHY: To help secure the civil liberties and human rights of immigrants
and keep our constitution intact
The ADCMA, is looking for volunteers to interview foreigners before they
go into Immigration and Naturalization Service offices to register. In
recent months, it has become clear that merely showing up for a meeting
at the INS can mean risking detention or even deportation.
The INS is requiring non-resident aliens to visit their offices and
register. The first two groups required to register (in December and
January) were from Arab and other countries with large Muslim populations.
When the first wave of mandatory registrations were announced by the INS,
several hundred people who went to register in December 2002 were
detained on the spot, primarily in Los Angeles. For details, see:
http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRights.cfm?ID=11554&c=95
Given the U.S. Justice Department's track record of indefinitely holding
foreigners suspected of "terrorism," many immigrants run the risk of
arrest for minor immigration law infractions when they go to register.
THE MONITORING CAMPAIGN
ADCMA is working with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the
American Immigration Lawyers' Association, the National Lawyers' Guild,
and other legal organizations, as well as with local student organizations,
mosques, and churches to collect information such as next-of-kin data and
medical/prescription from people before they enter the INS office, in
case they are detained, and document irregularities in INS questioning
and registration process after they register.
TRAINING TO BE A VOLUNTEER MONITOR
For this program to be successful, we need a number of volunteers who
can spend a few hours a month (mostly evenings and weekend afternoons)
interviewing people before and after their visit to the INS offices. The
next immediate deadlines are February 7 and March 28. We are therefore
looking for a few volunteers who can spend one or two evenings or a weekend
afternoon, over the next couple of weeks and for a longer stretch in mid-
to late-March.
The first volunteer training will be held on Friday evening, January 31
at 6:30 at the American Civil Liberties office, 3rd floor, 99 Chauncy
Street, Boston, MA. The monitoring project will begin on Sunday, February 2,
at 3:00 at the Islamic Society of Boston, in Cambridge, MA. For more
information on this important project, please write to info@adcma.org or
call 1-877-269-2072.
Thanks for your support.
ADC of Massachusetts
Posted by: Aram Falsafi <afalsafi@igc.org> from ADC
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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mitai-announce, utr-announce, hemisphere-announce, msa-ec, arab-request,
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