While most Dreamers will not be vulnerable to deportation until 2020, Trump’s action will increase the environment of fear in immigrant communities, promoting racial profiling and subjecting 800,000 Dreamers to deportation, mostly after 2020.

Between the fires in LA, Hurricanes Harvey and now Irma powering toward Florida with winds blustering to over 225MPH, the escalating crisis in North Korea, the end of DACA and the loss of one of our community leaders, Susan Popovich, it feels like one of those crushing periods like we experienced when Trump first took office. One unrelenting blow after another. I find it almost impossible to prioritize what to write about as we are surrounded by crisis, catastrophe, threats and losses. It is at times like these that we must persist in our activism, but also to care for ourselves. Do take time to turn off the media and to turn to those closest to you and find solace and strength there. But then use that strength to find a way to do what Susan did…find a niche and fill it today, tomorrow and indefinitely. We need you now more than ever. Sitting at home is giving up and giving up simply can not be an option. Retake has many opportunities for digging in, resisting, and re-inventing, click here for how to find your niche.

Community Conversations Canvassing Resumes After Labor Day Break. Wednesday, Sept 6, 4pm 1420 Cerrillos.  Join us for a short 20 minute training and then you can go on your own schedule to meet neighbors going door-to-door. The script is very informal and conversational, the point is not to convince or dispute. You are merely engaging and chatting and by doing so, you are identifying people who want to be kept informed or getting active. From all reports, it is both fun and your neighbors will welcome the connection. No RSVP, just please show up and bring a friend.  

Local Research Advocacy Team. Thursday, Sept 7, 6-8pm, 1420 Cerrillos. If we want to Retake Our Democracy, we have to get our fingers dirty figuring out how it works and get involved. That is the work of this team. Join us in examining how Community Land Trust, Inclusionary Zoning, People’s Councils, and Participatory Budgeting may all be part of a progressive use for the University of Arts & Design (UAD). This team has been researching public transit, affordable housing, low-income rental strategies and other municipality options to prevent gentrification and replacement. Between meetings, members review research like what is presented today, talk with community officials, city staff and Councilors to better understand how the city makes decisions and how we can proactively make constructive suggestions. This is a key meeting in relation to our thinking about the UAD. Join us by clicking here for more information and to RSVP on Facebook (preferred) or just reply to this email and let us know you are coming. We especially need folks with experience in economic development or community development. 

Co-Existing Cultures: Uniting Pueblo & Spanish Communities. Friday, Sept 8, 11am. IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts108 Cathedral Pl, Santa Fe. The Poeh Cultural Center will host a community event to gather input on solutions to find a respectful and improved future here in New Mexico. Large idea boards for the public will be available to share their thoughts on, “what are our common values?” and “how can we improve our co-existence together?” Click here for more information and to RSVP on Facebook.

Red Nation Estrada Protest. Friday Sept 8, 1pm.  Santa Fe Cathedral Park, 131 Cathedral Pl, Santa Fe.  Join Red Nation and others to demand an end of the celebration of the genocide of Pueblo peoples and all Native people of the southwest. Together, engage in the struggle to protect sacred sites from on going occupation and resource extraction. The revisionist history prepetuated by the Entrada erases centuries of Pueblo Resistance, and minimizes current struggles to protect Native sacred lands. For more information and to RSVP for the Entrada protest, click here.

Trump to End DACA. What it Means and What the Santa Fe Dreamers Project Is Doing 

Not only is Trump an amoral thug, he is a coward. Rather than end DACA himself, he shifted responsibility to the Congress which now has six months to pass legislation extending DACA.  If Congress fails to act in the next six months, DACA ends and the timetable at left becomes operative. In essence, by 2021 DACA protections will have ended for all 800,000 Dreamers.

Vox published an excellent description of Trump’s action and how it will impact Dreamers immediately and over time. The report summarizes where Dreamers find themselves today:

“Beyond the risk of deportation, immigrants currently protected by DACA now face the loss of their ability to work legally in the US; of their driver’s licenses in many states; and of the assurance that they are fundamentally wanted in the country where they grew up.For the next six months, DACA recipients will live under crushing uncertainty. After that time, if Congress doesn’t pass a bill, DACA recipients — one by one — will face an impossible choice. They can resign themselves to the lives they lived five years ago. They can try to retain the gains they made over the past five years, even without the protections that made it possible. Or they can try to find a more welcoming place in which to live.”

Click here to read the full report. It lays out in detail the immediate and long-term impact of this action and what options Congress has to prevent termination of DACA. A very good report. Below, I provide a note from our ally and friend, Allegra Love, Director of the Santa Fe Dreamers. Her note sent out on Tuesday describes the Dreamers Project’s local plans. I highly recommend a donation to the Dreamers and/or to Somos Un Pueblo Unido. They are going to have their hands full and will need all the resources our community can garner. Click here for a link to our Tithe page and donate to one or both today. As Allegra put it so clearly: We need to take this action personally. it is an assault on our most core values. We must stand together.

Dear Friends,

In case you haven’t heard the news, this morning President Trump and Jeff Sessions rescinded the DACA program. This is very bad news for Dreamers. Below we have summarized what we think we know about the roll-out of the cancellation. But here is what I know for sure: Dreamers are powerful. I have watched this program transform lives and I have watched incredible young people grow and change under the DACA program in ways that cannot be erased. The magic of this movement is that it is powered by people’s deep belief in themselves. A President can’t stop that. I don’t know what is going to happen and I can’t yet see the way out but I know how deeply my heart and so many other hearts believe in the goodness and the strength of these young immigrants’ dreams and that is more powerful than the cowardly Trump administration.

But for now an explanation:

• They are not taking work permits away. Dreamers whose cards are set to expire before 3/5/2018 will have a month window (until 10/5/2018) to put their applications in. (I think we have between 100-200 clients who this will apply to)
• All pending requests as of today will be approved on a case by case basis (we have around 200 pending requests)
• There will be no new initial applications accepted as of today

Here at the office we are going to be furiously sending in renewals before October 5th because lives depend on it. We will be screening as many DACA clients as possible for more permanent forms of relief: green cards, U-visa, Special Immigrant Juveniles. Of course, we will be stepping up to whatever fight is coming in our Congress to finally bring Dreamers and their families the permanent protections they have always deserved. You financial support during these difficult times is, of course, critical. You can make a contribution here.

It is imperative that all  Americans take this decision today personally. This is not just an an assault on Dreamers. It is an assault on all of us. It an assault on our values, our communities, our economy, our understanding of justice, our sense of right and wrong. It is going to take more than just being sad or outraged to protect these young Americans– it is going to take showing up, standing by their sides, sacrifice and commitment.

Please join us.

Allegra and the Team at Santa Fe Dreamers

Please donate to Somos or the Santa Fe Dreamers today and look to this post for more we can do going forward. Click here to read the New Mexican’s report on the demonstration at SFCC yesterday.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform

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