People seeking refuge from unspeakable violence, from abject poverty, from political oppression are imprisoned, deported, or simply turned away – in our name.
A generation of young folks – hard-working, talented, studious – is facing the reality that at any time they could be detained and deported to a country they don’t know and may not even remember – in our name.
And children – CHILDREN – are separated from their parents and crammed into filthy, crowded, dangerous conditions ad left to fend for themselves, with no apparent plan to reunite them with their families, or even to just do the bare minimum to care for them – in our name.
There is so much wrong with the immigration system in America that even just trying to wrap your head around it can break your heart. For me it all comes down to a central conundrum: We must do something, but WHAT must we do? Or maybe this is more precise: One person hasn’t the resources to respond to each and every thing that’s wrong in the home of the brave – how do we guard against becoming so overloaded with choices that we choose…nothing?
Well, one obvious thing is to simply make that first (or second, or 10,000th) step on this particular thousand-mile journey. This is a core tenet at While Rome Burns. We just do a little each month to try to support the folks right around us here in our sky-blue community, the folks who are most likely to be negatively impacted by the inhumanity at the top here in the US.
So this Sunday, the 30th of June, we’ll be doing our best to help out a really wonderful organization called Voz Worker’s Rights Education Project.
Voz is a worker-led organization that empowers diverse day laborers and immigrants to improve their working conditions and protect civil rights through leadership development, organizing, education and economic opportunity.
Voz Mission Statement
Voz began in 1996 as the Worker’s Organizing Committee in response to repressive tactics used by police and immigration agents targeting day laborers seeking work on a couple of Portland’s more visible intersections. Leadership and local and national networking developed, and Voz Worker’s Rights Education Project was founded in 2000.