Saturday, March 31, 2018

Politics of Immigration Newsletter #5: Dialogues, Blog Posts, and the Gun-Immigration Connection

Dear friends,

On March 15 we facilitated an interesting and informative workshop at Northern Manhattan’s Word Up Community Bookshop. The session included a presentation on the sanctuary that the neighborhood’s Holyrood Episcopal Church has provided for Amanda Morales Guerra and her children since August 2017, and a discussion about ways to answer the sometimes uncomfortable questions people have about immigration. Many thanks to Word Up for giving us this opportunity! The bookstore is a valuable local resource for people who live in the New York area, sponsoring cultural and political events in both Spanish and English; read more about it here and here. And you can pick up a copy of The Politics of Immigration there while supporting an independent bookseller.

New Yorkers who want to show support for Amanda Morales Guerra can attend a vigil held each Friday beginning at 4:30 pm at 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Northern Manhattan.
Suffolk County Community College invited us to facilitate two immigration discussions on March 22, but the event had to be cancelled because of the snowstorm that closed the college for two days. The sponsors are hoping to reschedule for later for this semester.
Jane will be facilitating a daytime class and an evening event in Champaign-Urbana, IL, on April 5 and then attending the Labor Notes Conference in Chicago from April 6 to April 8. David expects to be in the DC area for an event sometime this spring. If you’re interested in connecting with us in any of these areas, please write us at mailto:thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.

Finally, with the renewed focus on gun violence in the United States, it’s important to remember that the U.S. arms industry also profits from gun violence in Mexico and Central America, and that this is major force driving unauthorized immigration here. Two of the blog posts below link to articles about this connection, including the role of a former head of the Border Patrol in transforming the NRA from an organization promoting gun safety to what it is today.

Some recent blog posts:
Gun Control Is an Immigration Issue: A Note on the NRA, March 27, 2018

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