Advance Press Coverage & Final List of "We Are One Human Family" Vigils

We have been getting great advance press coverage of the We Are One Human Family Vigils. Over 10 articles have appeared in so far in local papers. This is a good sign that our events will be covered after the fact as well.

Please help us increase the turnout by inviting your friends and neighbors.

Below is the final list of vigils. Please note that the Dumont vigil will be held tonight and the Morristown vigil has two locations, one at 6:00 pm and one at 7:00 pm.

WHEN: Tuesday September 15th, 2009 (Except Dumont vigil, see below)

WHERE: (list of local vigil sites and local press contacts)

Newark - Peter Francisco Park (east side of Penn Station) 4:00 PM

Cynthia Mellon, Ironbound Community Corporation, 862-755-9577

Bridgeton – In front of the Courthouse on Broad St. 11:30 AM Pastor

Jamie Bagley, Karll’s Corner Community Fellowship, 856-455-7669

Dumont-Calvary United Methodist Church185 W Madison Ave; 7:30 PM, Bonnie Strain, 201-384-8324 [Note: this Vigil will held Monday, September 14th]

Freehold - Sheriff’s Office (corner of Main and Center Sts), 6:00 PM, Rita Dentino, Casa Freehold, 732-492-1852

Hightstown - St. Anthony of Padua Church, Franklin Street; 7:00 PM, Lenore Isleib, co-coordinator, St. Anthony's Social Justice Group, 609-448-6470

Jersey City - McGinley Square; Bergen Ave & Montgomery St. 4:00 PM, Kathy O’Leary, Pax Christi NJ, 973-610-1684

Highland Park - Reformed Church, 19 S. 2cd Ave; 4:00 PM, Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale, 732-249-7349

Keyport - St. Joseph’s Church 376 Maple Pl; 7:30 PM, Fr. Ronald Cioffi, 732-264-0322.

Montclair - Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair 67 Church St; 4:00 PM, Johanna Foster, 914-552-5376.

Morristown (2) – 1) St. Margaret's Church 6 Sussex Ave. 6:00 PM; 2) Pentecostal Church 59 Spring St.; 7:00 PM, Diana Mejia, Wind of the Spirit, 201-563-1062

Princeton Newspaper Publishes Editorial Suppporting Family Values in Immigration

Today I came across the first article about the "We Are One Human Family Campaign".
It is from the Princeton Packet and it focuses on the vigil being held in Hightstown.

Please go and post a positive comment to support the great work of the organizers at St. Anthony of Padua.

We Are One Human Family -Children's Vigils Sept 15

On September 2nd 1990, the UN and its member nations recognized that “the inherent dignity and … the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world” as it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Join us on September 15th, 2009
At events throughout NY/NJ as we celebrate this historic document and let our lawmakers know that We Are ONE in our support of:
* The Rights of Children
* Family Unification
* Humane Immigration Policy

Because We Are ONE Human Family

Purpose of the Children’s Vigils

* Promoting the Child Citizen Protection Act, H.R. 182
* Supporting the central principle of family unification in immigration reform.
* Celebrating the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
* Urging the U.S. to endorse the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

For information on co-sponsorship, holding your own vigil or to locate a vigil contact:
Alix Nguefack at 973-854-0401 anguefack@afsc.org
Kathy O’Leary at 908-273-0751 kolearypcnj@gmail.com

Co-sponsored by American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Immigrant Rights Program & Pax Christi NJ

Promote Family Unity as a Guiding Principle of Immigration Law

On March 3rd groups from the American Friends Service Committee and Families for Freedom traveled to Washington, DC to lobby Congress about the Child Citizen Protection Act. Many of you supported their effort by calling your Congressperson in support of H.R. 182. There are now 18 co-sponsors of the bill including three more Congressmen from NJ!

Please continue supporting the effort to promote family unity as a guiding principle of immigration law.

Sign the petition on-line by clicking here

NJ Call-In to Support Child Citizen Protection Act

In the family, which is a community of persons, special attention must be devoted to the children by developing a profound esteem for their personal dignity, and a great respect and generous concern for their rights. ... By fostering and exercising a tender and strong concern for every child that comes into this world, the Church fulfills a fundamental mission: for she is called upon to reveal and put forward anew in history the example and the commandment of Christ the Lord, who placed the child at the heart of the Kingdom of God: "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." from FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO by Pope John Paul II

On March 3rd groups from American Friends Service Committee and Families for Freedom will be in Washington, DC lobbying congress about the Child Citizen Protection Act. Please call your congressman that day and ask him to co-sponsor H.R. 182.

About the Bill

An estimated 3.1 million US citizen children have at least one parent who is undocumented. Every year thousands of children are either separated from a parent who has been deported or forced into exile.

Under the current law, judges are not allowed to consider the impact on minor US citizen children when deciding whether or not to deport a parent. The Child Citizen Protection Act would allow immigration judges to consider whether deportation is "clearly against the best interests of a US citizen child".

To read the entire bill click here.


Don’t know how to contact your congressman?

Go to www.congress.org and type in your zip-code

Talking points:

* We should be doing everything we can to keep families together.

* Current immigration law provides no option to the presiding judge in a deportation case to consider the harm of separation of the child who is a US citizen from their parent.

* There are an estimated 2 million families in the U.S. with mixed immigration status.

* These families have approximately 3.1 million U.S. citizen children.

* The current immigration law routinely breaks apart these families.

* The children who are left behind in single parent households suffer emotionally, and financially. Many join the welfare roles. Some have to leave school to go to work.

* I value family unity and believe that these children should be provided with every opportunity to be raised in a stable and unified family.

All God’s Children: Together on a Journey of Hope

St. Teresa’s Social Concerns & Justice Committee would like to invite you to a panel discussion on current immigration policy and potential reforms. The issues of immigration enforcement, detention, and family reunification will be among those we examine through the lens of our faith. The date was selected to coincide with Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt.

All God’s Children: Together on a Journey of Hope

A Panel Discussion on Immigration

Monday, January 5th at 7:00 PM
St Teresa’s – Memorial Hall
306 Morris Avenue
Summit, NJ 07901

For more information please contact Karen Malnati at 908-598-8194 or malnatifamily@hotmail.com

To RSVP or for directions click here.

Speaker Bios:

Amy Gottlieb
Amy Gottlieb is the Program Director of the American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program in Newark,. She graduated from Rutgers Law School-Newark in 1996, and has represented intending immigrants in family-based petitions and applicants for asylum. Gottlieb is a board member of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, La Fuente, and the Rutgers Law School, and also serves on the Immigration and Nationality Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, as well as the Minority Concerns Committee of the Hudson County Court System.

Juan Carlos Ruiz
Juan Carlos Ruiz is an immigrant and son of immigrant parents. He holds a M. Div in Theology from St. Mary of the Lake, Chicago. He is a member of the New Sanctuary Coalition in NYC and the Northeast Coordinator for the New Sanctuary Movement. The New Sanctuary Movement was established in 2007 with the goal of protecting immigrant families from unjust deportation, affirming and making visible these families as children of God and awakening the moral imagination of the country through prayer and witness.

Rev. Petero A. N. Sabune
Petero Sabune, was born in Uganda, where his father was an Anglican Priest and his brother, James, was murdered by Idi Amin. He graduated from Vassar College with a degree in political science and earned a M. Div from the Union Theological Seminary. Sabune has been widely praised for his work with Episcopal faith communities and for his work with immigrants. He is currently Pastor and Protestant Chaplain, Sing Sing Correctional Facility and Associate, Trinity Church; Ossining, New York.

Help Provide Thanksgiving for Separated Families

Kevin Amaya age 5 with a letter from his mother who had been deported to Honduras a month earlier.

On Friday November 21st, at the Episcopal House in Newark, the American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program in Newark will be hosting a party for families of recently deported immigrants and immigrant detainees.

Detention and deportation creates both an emotional and a financial strain on the families who are left behind. These family members are often legal residents or American citizens. (Up to 15% of US families are of mixed immigration status.) As a result, deportation will effectively permanently separate immediate family members, including parents from their young children.

At the party the families will be given each family a Thanksgiving basket of food stuff to celebrate the holiday. A list of items requested is listed below. Monetary donations will also be accepted. You can make checks out to:

Sr. Janet Yurkanin
Migration & Refugee Svcs.
Diocese of Trenton
149 N. Warren St.
Trenton, NJ 08608-1307

For more information, or if you know of a family who is suffering from the separation of immigration detention or deportation, please contact Alix Nguefack at 973-854-0401.

Thanksgiving Basket

Turkey (12 - 15 lb for family of four; 16 - 22 lb for family of five +)
Packaged Macaroni and cheese or rice and dried beans/peas
Fresh Broccoli or Green Beans
Canned Corn
Canned or Fresh Sweet Potatoes
Canned or Fresh Carrots
Packaged Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Yellow Onion(s)
Pearl Onions (optional)
Celery (optional)
Evaporated Milk
Chicken Broth
Rolls
Butter or Margarine
Fresh Fruit – Apples, Bananas, Pears, Tangerines and or Clementines
Pie(s) (not frozen) – Pumpkin, Apple, Mincemeat. Pecan (or the fixings = crust, fruit)
Cookies
Shelled Nuts
Brown Sugar
Marshmallows