The Golden Door: May 2021
Legal and Policy Issues
We are closely monitoring state and federal immigration law and policy. Please check our social media accounts for more frequent updates.
Call to Action: Contact Maine’s Senators And Tell Them You Support A Pathway To Citizenship
The Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House of Representatives in March with bipartisan support. The Dream and Promise Act would establish a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients.
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would create a pathway to permanent residence for farmworkers and would change the existing H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program. While DACA, TPS, and DED recipients and farmworkers need relief NOW, the current bills have many bars for immigrants who have had contact with our racially biased criminal legal system. This disproportionately harms immigrants of color. We need pathways to citizenship without these damaging criminal bars.
This legislation STILL has not reached the Senate floor. For these bills to become law, they must pass in the Senate.
Keep calling our senators and urge them to vote for an inclusive Dream and Promise Act and Farm Workforce Modernization Act without criminal bars to status, as well as to support pathways to citizenship for ALL undocumented immigrants in the US:
Call: (202) 224-2523 📞
Call: (202) 224-5344 📞
Haiti Designated For Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
Graphic courtesy of the We Are Home Coalition.
The Biden administration announced it is granting more than 100,000 Haitians in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS is a temporary status granted to individuals from certain countries that the government has designated as being unsafe for return. Haiti was originally designated for TPS following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, and protections were extended several times, until the Trump administration attempted to end them in 2017. This move by the Biden administration is significant because it will apply to all eligible Haitian people residing in the US before May 21, 2021.
TPS for Haitians is critical to keeping families together and safe. This move by the Biden administration will offer relief to countless families in Maine who are integral to our communities. Eligible Mainers will be able to obtain work permits and live in Maine without the fear of deportation.
ILAP congratulates and thanks Black immigrant leaders and community members who have fought to make this happen, including incredible work by organizations like the UndocuBlack Network and Haitian Bridge Alliance.
We demand Congress to act now and provide a pathway to permanent status for TPS recipients. We also urge the Biden administration to designate TPS for people from other countries in need of protection in the US, and to end the use of Title 42, which is separating thousands of families.
Biden Administration Closes Two Detention Centers
The Biden administration ordered ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to stop using two detention facilities in Georgia and Massachusetts. ICE will also end its 287(g) agreement with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts. 287(g) agreements are extremely harmful arrangements in which local law enforcement officers are deputized to perform the duties of ICE agents.
ICE detention is rife with abuses and due process violations, and its continued use separates families and harms communities. There is no justification for immigration detention, and the Biden administration must instead invest in community-based alternatives that are proven to work. We hope this is just a first step toward ending immigration detention.
Noel Paul Stookey Partners with ILAP on New Album!
Noel “Paul” Stookey, of the seminal 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary, continued his lifetime of social activism this spring with the release of a new album called JUST CAUSES. ILAP is honored to announce that we are among the beneficiaries of this powerful compilation!
On the album, ILAP is paired with the song “Familia Del Corazon,” a musical dedication to the hopes of immigrant communities and a reminder that we are all citizens of the heart.
Listen to our song now at www.ilapmaine.org/justcauses!
Thanks to Noel’s generosity, we’re also thrilled to share the full album with you. ILAP supporters will receive a free copy of JUST CAUSES (CD or digital download) as a thank you for any donation of $30 or more before June 30th!
More details are on our website or you can email Development Director Laura any time.
ILAP Presents at Maine Philanthropy Center Conference
ILAP Development Director Laura Simocko joined other Maine fundraisers to facilitate a presentation about the Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) Movement during this month's Maine Philanthropy Center conference, Centering Equity: Shifting Power, Building Community.
We are excited to continue learning and talking with donors, funders, nonprofits, and other partners about this work. Email maineccf@gmail.com to connect with the CCF chapter in Maine!
“Our organizations exist - and our fundraising exists - to make a difference in our communities. What matters is not just what we do, but how we do it.”
A Closer Look
This section of the Golden Door takes “a closer look” at immigration using an intersectional lens based on a monthly theme. Let us know what you think!
Trauma & Immigration
The month of May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a national movement to fight stigma around mental illness, provide support and education, and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.
People living at the intersection of multiple oppressions often face unique types of trauma, like racial trauma and the trauma that occurs before, during, and after immigrating to a new country. Many immigrant youth have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, due to anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies as well as fears of immigration enforcement and concerns about immigration status of themselves and family.
Trauma and racism shows up in the body and as Resmaa Menakem writes in his book My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, even passes from generation to generation.
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration’s (BAJI) recently published a report focused on the experience of mental health in Black immigrant women and femmes’ lives, detailing struggle and resiliency. “The discrimination we face based on our race, gender, immigration status, and other aspects of our identities has a cumulative toll on our minds, bodies and spirits,” summarized the authors, but “we believe our liberation is possible and that Black women and femmes are the people who will lead us there.”
As ILAP staff, we are continually in awe of the resilience of our clients and their families.
Keep Learning:
Black Alliance for Just Immigration: Our Stories & Visions: Gender in Black Immigrant Communities
Resmaa Menakem: My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Cultural Somatics Training & Institute: Understanding Somatic Abolitionism
Support:
Rejuvenation center for the enrichment and liberation of Black people in Maine and beyond
Maine Association for New Americans
Immigrant-led organization that promotes the social and personal empowerment of immigrants through raising awareness of individual and collective trauma and mutual sharing of resilience-building skills and stories