NEWSIMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Late last week, Donald Kagan, who received a kidney transplant that saved his life, started a petition on Change.org. It was for another man fighting a battle to live and see his daughter grow up—Jesus Navarro. Navarro is an Oakland father who has waited six years for a transplant, has insurance to cover the cost of the surgery, and has a wife who hopes to donate her kidney. But UCSF Medical Center won’t perform the life-saving transplant for one reason: Jesus is undocumented.

UCSF argues that, as an undocumented immigrant, Navarro will not be able to afford future treatments, but his supporters argue otherwise and have lined up willing donors to aid him in his long-term care. Since Donald started his petition, tens of thousands have signed. His campaign for Jesus has been covered by ABC 7- San Francisco, CBS 5- SF, NBC Latino, and the Huffington Post. Everyone from doctors and nurses to the children of parents who faced kidney failure have expressed outrage that UCSF would let a man die on their watch simply because of his immigration status. Below is a sample of comments from Donald's viral petition:

I am a graduate of UCSF School of Medicine, Class of 1973. I am also a believer in the worth and dignity of every individual, without regard to race, religion, gender, national origin -- or status of documentation! Let's just move the case mentally for a moment to the Jim Crow south and see how the morality of it all plays out. Sometimes institutions need to step forward and do the right thing. UCSF may have just met that moment.

-Charles Torrey, Vashon, WA

Seven months ago, Rose Escobar’s worst nightmare came true. Her husband, loving father to then 1-year-old baby Walter and the main financial provider for the family, was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and placed in detention. A faulty lawyer had advised him not to attend a hearing to renew the Temporary Protected Status that was granted to him as an immigrant fleeing violence and natural disasters in El Salvador, and this had triggered a deportation order.

What followed were the most difficult months of Rose’s life as she struggled to make ends meet and provide for her son who stood in front of the window everyday calling for his dad. But an amazing thing happened—after Rose started a campaign on Change.org to free her husband, thousands began to sign. FIEL Houston, a local student-led organization, saw her petition and offered to help, staging a vigil in front of the detention center attended by more than 50 local supporters. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee got involved and contacted ICE on Rose’s behalf. And after more than 4,000 signed Rose’s petition and the story was covered by the Houston Chronicle and multiple local TV stations, Jose was finally freed and is now home with his family.

A dozen people gathered outside of Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday to hold vigil for the release of Charbel "Charley" Chehoud. Among the people who attended and shared stories about Charley were faith leaders, advocates, friends and family, and even a Jersey City police officer. Charley has been in detention for over a year and has spent the last 32 days in solitary confinement. But he has committed no crimes. In fact, he helped solve them. After exhausting her resources fighting for Charley's release,  his fiance Veronica Garcia started a Change.org petition that to date has nearly 15,000 signatures.

Charley is known as a local hero in his community. New Jersey police had deemed a brutal murder an accident, but Charley bravely came forward with a tip he heard from a co-worker that solved the case. Since then, he has worked undercover as a police informant for years, risking his life to make his community safer.

Charley was detained after missing a court date in his battle for asylum. He continues to be held by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, in spite of the calls for his release -- some of those calls even coming from local New Jersey law enforcement officials who worked with Charley. Says Jessica Fernandez, a Jersey City police officer who attended Tuesday's vigil, "Charley had the utmost respect for police and people in uniform." And then later, "The conditions he's being held in - no time outside, visitors refused - are shocking. They are treating him like a hardcore criminal."

Originally posted on the Reform Immigration for America blog.

Breaking news this morning – Connecticut’s Joe Arpaio is now out of a job. Thanks to more than 15,000 signatures on our Change.org petition calling on East Haven, CT Mayor Maturo to fire Chief Gallo, it was announced that Chief Gallo will be stepping down.

This campaign started receiving major attention and support for last week’s text-a-taco action and delivery to Mayor Maturo’s office, but it quickly focused attention on the serious underlying structural problems in the police department of East Haven. Let’s be clear: Chief Gallo resigned because his department had a history of racism and that those issues have not been seriously addressed.

The resignation is a welcome step, but the institutional racism running rampant in East Haven will not be overcome by a single act. We are committed to making sure it becomes a step forward in rebuilding the respect and trust desperately needed between East Haven leadership and the Latino community.

We are committed to holding the mayor and the town’s police department accountable in these next steps. We will be working with our allies at JUNTA for Progressive Action to plan the upcoming community dinner, and we invite the Mayor to use the dinner as an opportunity to begin serious conversations toward a future of greater racial understanding.

It took serious attention and outrage to address a problem that many thought would not be solved. Thank you all for stepping up to the challenge, and demanding the righting of years of wrongs in East Haven -- please share this victory far and wide online, as a reminder of the power of immigrant families united!

This week, Jennifer Lopez (the Dreamer, not the pop star) and her family received incredible news: the DREAM Act-eligible young woman who faced deportation was granted a reprieve after more than 38,000 people signed her petition on Change.org.

The campaign was started by a Florida-based youth organization called Students Working for Immigrant Rights and Manuel Guerra, a Dreamer who successfully fought his own deportation on Change.org and had never met Jennifer Lopez in person. Student activists say that under recent guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security, Lopez did not meet the criteria for deportation because she had no criminal background, was brought to the country as a young child, and continued to care for two critically ill and handicapped siblings, both of whom are U.S. citizens.

“Today is one of my best days ever,” said Jennifer Lopez, upon learning that her deportation would be canceled. “I'm very grateful for the opportunity to stay here with my family who needs me. They are everything to me. I know that this would not be happening without the help of Manuel Guerra and my lawyer Richard Hujber, organizations like Students Working For Immigrant Rights and United We Dream, and all the people who took their valuable time to read and sign my petition on Change.org. ”

Guest post from Nicole Cairns at the Reform Immigration for America campaign. 

Yesterday, we delivered the 500 tacos you sent to Mayor Maturo of East Haven, CT. Your response was far more than we expected. So far, more than 4,500 people have texted us and, instead of sending the rest of the tacos to the mayor, we’re going to host a community dinner in your honor.

But this story isn’t over.

When we delivered the tacos to Mayor, he ran out the back door to avoid us. And, in an interview set to air on WFSB-TV this weekend, the Mayor’s comments continue to be tone deaf:

“I was voted in for my 11th year. I have an obligation as the leader of our community to do what is right for our community.”

“I’m going to be a better leader and we are going to heal. We are going to make East Haven a great place to live.”

East Haven cannot “heal” or be a “great place to live” until the institutional racism that plagues the town is gone.Mayor Maturo isn’t going anywhere. But the chief of police, Leonard Gallo, is another story.

Update [Wed. 1/11/12]: The press  hits have been rolling in! Below is a round up of the coverage Charley's story has received.

Veronica spoke with Soledad O'Brien on CNN national news (this morning): you can watch the video here. The Editorial Board of the New Jersey Star Ledger wrote an op-ed this morning calling for Chehoud's deportation to be cancelled. The South Orange Patch reported on Chehoud's story. And Marie Diamond from ThinkProgress analyzed Chehoud's story and the implications of policies that deport immigrants who work with police, therefore jeopardizing public safety.

Community safety advocates often warn that increased ties between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police will lead to an erosion of trust in communities, making it less likely that immigrants will report violent crimes to law enforcement for fear of deportation.

Charbel Chehoud, an immigrant who has lived in New Jersey since 1989, certainly could have faced such fear. But he came forward to help police solve a high-profile murder that had gone unsolved, despite the risks, after a former co-worker confessed having witnessed the crime. Chehoud didn’t hesitate to do what he knew was right: go forward with the information that would help a victim’s family find some peace even though he was out of status and in the midst of applying for asylum.

At the time, Chehoud’s decision helped the police close a brutal case that had gone cold. But his involvement in helping law enforcement eventually led to a missed court date that triggered deportation. And now, even though the police and a former prosecutor have asked that he be allowed to stay, Chehoud is in detention and could face a sixth attempt at removal on Wednesday.

Join over 7,000 people who have signed Veronica Garcia’s petition asking ICE to listen to police and prosecutors and keep her fiancée home.

On November 4th, Meghan Wolfe wrote a blog post as she prepared to leave Kenya, where her husband works in a hospital, to head to their hometown in Indiana with their son Andy. National doctor strikes had begun in Kenya, and Meghan was getting ready to give birth in a couple of months. It was a heart-wrenching decision. Meghan would have to leave behind Eden, a baby who had been abandoned in the hospital, and whom the couple were in the process of adopting for more than 2 years.

“You can’t imagine how horrible it feels to separate Eden and Andy. I am so afraid of what that will do to them and their relationship,” Meghan wrote.  “I worry that she will feel abandoned… She might not be there when Grace is born, and she is so excited about helping me with the baby. Ben and I are tired of fighting the US, and we are so sad right now. That leaves us with prayer. “

Although the US government had approved a travel visa for Eden in the past, and the Kenyan government recognized the couple as legal guardians and had approved travel for Eden, US Customs and Immigration Services had not approved a visa for Eden to spend the holidays with her family in Indiana.

But yesterday, after over 35,000 people signed the family's petition on Change.org, Meghan received great news: Baby Eden would be coming home.

Tuesday night, family and community members gathered at the Juntos Community Center in Philadelphia to hold vigil for Miguel Orellano, a father who has been in ICE detention for nearly four months. One notable absence in the crowd asking for Miguel's release was his fiancee, Jessica. Last week, Jessica - who is pregnant with the couple's second child - went into early labor and was hospitalized. The stress of her job and raising her son Noah without Miguel's support seems to have taken a toll on her health. She was initially released but has been re-admitted and is currently on strict bed rest. Miguel's continued absence is not only emotionally devastating for Jessica and Noah, but it's actually putting the couple's unborn child at risk.

Sign the Dream Activist petition asking ICE to release Miguel on bond. 

Community members argue that this unnecessary trauma is due to the fact that ICE will not release Miguel - who is clearly not a flight risk or a threat - to be with his family while he fights his deportation case. Miguel was brought to the United States when he was only nine years old, he grew up here, went to high school, met Jessica and started a family.  You can read more on the background of his case here.

Says Miguel's lawyer, David Bennion, "I filed a formal request.. at the end of October asking ICE to set bond so he can be with his family while he is fighting his case--a very reasonable and minimal ask.  They denied it the day after they got it.  This is consistent with their treatment of other cases under the new program, and it represents a failure of the process, which is unsurprising given the administration's track record.  This is one way Miguel's case has national resonance".

This is the Christmas Rose Escobar had imagined she’d be staying up late with her high school sweetheart and husband Jose, hiding toys for two-year-old Walter under the tree and anxiously awaiting the morning. Instead, the feeling in the house is tense. Money is tight this year as Rose has become the sole provider and much of it goes to lawyer fees. And Walter spends his days pressed up against the window, used to seeing his dad come home and not understanding why he’s not around.

Last week, more than 50 community members gathered in front of Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, in a vigil to support Rose and her son. Rose told her story, and attendees chanted and rallied for Jose’s release. The 25-year-old Houston father, who arrived as a teenager from El Salvador and acquired Temporary Protected Status, has been in detention since June, after following faulty legal advice that led him to miss a hearing to renew his status. Jose has never been in trouble with the law and is married to a US citizen with a US citizen child. Under Department of Homeland Security guidelines, he should not be a priority for deportation and his case should be reviewed for dismissal.

After Rose started a petition calling for Jose’s release that has garnered more than 4,000 signatures, Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL), a Houston immigrant youth-led organization, took up the campaign. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee also stepped in and asked ICE to release Jose. The Houston Chronicle, Univision, and Telemundo all covered the family’s plight. Yet Jose Escobar has remained behind bars for more than 6 months -- and the family faces the dismal prospects of a Christmas apart.