The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is pleased to announce that we will be hosting monthly immigration calls that will offer updates on immigration legislation and skill building trainings for coordinated local events and advocacy efforts. These calls will take place the first Monday of every month at 4 pm EST. The next call will be February 2 and we will focus on the where things stand in regards to federal legislation, discuss February 13 -22 National Faith Prayer Vigils, and offer trainings on how to put together a prayer vigil, how to publicize it, and how to recruit people to attend. Join with people of faith from across the country to plan and strategize how to move just and humane immigration reform in 2009!

If you are interested in hosting prayer vigil or an event February 13-22, please contact me: awhite@episcopalchurch.org or (202) 547-7300.

You can access a toolkit about how to organize a prayer vigil here: http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/prayer-vigil-getting-organized.pdf

Dial-in #:                     866-200-5786

Conference ID:           6814444

Interfaith Immigration Coalition Presented the Interfaith Platform to Obama’s Transition Team: The Coalition is also reaching to new members of Congress and presenting our platform. The document has been almost 500 signatures, of national and local organization and faith leaders. If you would like to sign on send an email to Jen Smyers at jsmyers@churchworldservice.org. You can access the platform here: http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/interfaith-immigration-platform-2009.pdf

On January 15, 2009 14 members of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition traveled nearly 200 miles to Virginia’s Hampton Roads Regional Jail. This facility holds nearly 1,300 inmates from all over the state, 350 being immigrant detainees. Coalition members toured the entire facility, to learn about the facility and see the conditions first hand. Our visit took us through the major areas of the jail from the processing center to the hospital to the pods where the detainees are housed. Through this visit we learned much about the everyday lives of immigrant detainees that can help us to advocate better on the issue.

For more information of this and other detention centers please visit http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/hamptonroads

For more information on detention:

The Episcopal Church singed on a national letter with over 1,200 advocacy groups delivered to the Obama Administration outlining priorities for immigration reform from the pro-immigrant, pro-immigration perspective.  The letter stressed the urgency with which the new Administration should approach immigration reform legislatively and administratively, noting that efforts to address the many ills facing our immigration system have become the victim of gridlock in Washington for too long. You can also obtain the letter here:

The Episcopal Church signed on a letter to President Obama, asking him to extend the temporary legal period of stay for Liberian refugees.  The letters ask President Obama to ensure that Liberians who came to the U.S. fleeing violence and turmoil are not deported.  Some 3,600 Liberians have been living and working in the U.S. with the permission of the U.S. government – some for as many as 18 years – while conditions in Liberia have remained too dangerous for them to return.  We are asking President Obama to extend their temporary legal period of stay for an additional 18 months after it expires on March 31, 2009.

The Episcopal Church signed on a letter, which has been sent to President Obama in light of the situation facing refugees in Gaza. The letter expresses that as organizations committed to the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, we are deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, two thirds of whom are refugees. Due to the state of siege imposed by the Israeli Government over the past year and a half, persons attempting to escape violence and persecution have been prohibited from leaving. 

RCUSA meeting with the Transition Team

The Refugee Council USA met with Obama’s Transition Team to discuss the most important issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers. RCUSA presented the recommendations and actions for US humanitarian, refugee and asylum policy. You can access the briefing book here:

Trafficking: Before leaving office Bush signed William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008. This law significantly enhances the tools available to prosecute traffickers and increases protection and services for U.S. citizen and foreign national victims in the U.S.  To read the full bill on The Library of Congress website, click here and search for bill number HR 7311.

Senate Passes Children’s Health Insurance Expansion; House Set to Clear It

The Senate passed a $32.8 billion bill to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, sending the bill to the House, which plans to quickly clear the bill for President Obama. The SCHIP legislation (HR 2) passed 66-32. It would reauthorize the children’s insurance program for four and a half years, covering 4.1 million previously uninsured children. The bill included the removal of a five-year waiting period to enter the SCHIP program for new, legal immigrants, and looser citizenship and eligibility documentation requirements. ICHIA (Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act):  ICHIA allows states to provide health coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP to lawfully-residing children and pregnant women without a five-year waiting period. 

Bush commuted the sentences of former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, who were serving 12- and 11-year prison sentences, respectively, for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in 2005.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey ruled that undocumented immigrants do not have a constitutional right to effective legal representation in deportation hearings, arguing that the Sixth Amendment applies only to criminal—not civil—cases. The ruling will effectively prevent immigrants from appealing deportation orders even if they receive inadequate representation. Immigration advocates are expected to appeal the ruling.   

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