Meet Henry Liu,
a Chinese American member of the Lexington Minute Men.
On representation Liu said: “Actually, when I walk down the street in my Colonial clothes, and I see an Asian family kind of looking at me, I’m kinda hoping somebody would say, ‘Wait a minute — you don’t have to be, you know, a Son of the American Revolution to join? You can be Chinese and be in this company?’ And sort of spark that conversation.” March on, Henry! - Alice
(Image by Linda Boardman Liu)
Ready to turn up the heat on ICE for the #ElPaso37? Give them a call TODAY to let them know you want the rest of the hunger strikers released. (
Let us know how it went!)
Note: you can only call ICE Enforcement & Removal between 8 AM - 8 PM EST, M-F; the other number seems to be attended much more throughout the day (and night).
BIG NEWS. One of the El Paso 37
has been paroled and is now with his family members in Washington, D.C. Two more are in proceedings to get parole, so they can continue pursuing their asylum cases.
The pressure we’ve been putting on ICE is working!
Please sign, share, and signal boost the good news!
Public works don’t have to mean private gentrification: Minneapolis-St. Paul is working to make sure preexisting communities aren’t pushed out when its new light rail line opens this summer.
“There’s a tension around gentrification in the Central Corridor. We are interested in doing work with a community, not to a community. We believe in supporting the artistic identity of the people living there, not moving in a bunch of hipsters and moving everyone else out." - CM
18mr:
In June 2013, more than forty Punjabi men — all of them members of a minority political party — fled India because they feared for their lives. In a journey that zig-zagged around the globe, they finally made it to the United States where they hoped to find safety and freedom. But asylum from the Indian government isn’t what they found here.
Instead, these asylum seekers have been trapped for months in Texas at the El Paso Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center. Despite proving their identities and certifying their reasons for asylum, they have been detained indefinitely by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department (ICE), the long arm of Homeland Security.
Now 37 of these unlawfully detained Punjabi men — the El Paso 37 — are on a hunger strike. And they’re not ending the strike until they’re released. We demand that ICE release these asylum seekers immediately.
ICE is legally bound to release detainees as soon as they have proven their true identities and reasons for seeking asylum in the United States. According to John Lawit, a Dallas-based lawyer for some of the detainees in El Paso, “There is zero evidence that any of the detainees are anyone but who they say they are.” No lawful reason exists to explain why these detainees should still be held in detention.
We can’t tell the world that the United States is a nation committed to justice when we turn away those who are most in need of our government’s protection. When did imprisoning asylees for months at a time become the way we “protect” those who flee their home countries out of fear, starvation, or persecution?
We refuse to stand by as ICE and Homeland Security continue to break their own rules and violate human rights. We know that already two hunger strikers have been hospitalized, and many others are in danger. And we’ve also learned that ICE is on the verge of force feeding striking detainees — a practice that the United Nations has called “torture.”
We choose to raise our voices on behalf of those whose voices are being systematically silenced. And we are determined to fight for the release of these unlawfully detained asylum seekers. Join us here.
It’s Monday and we haven’t heard from the 37 since midweek last week, despite attorney John Lawit’s efforts to talk to his clients. (He says he usually hears from them 3-4 times a day.) What’s going on? The El Paso 37 need your support more than ever. Please boost this!
“The question industry professionals need to ask themselves is: “How can I use my position to help create a literary world that is diverse, equitable, and doesn’t just represent the same segment of society it always has since its inception? What concrete actions can I take to make actual change and move beyond the tired conversation we’ve been having for decades?””
The Sherpa porters who make it possible for wealthy tourists to make the summit of Everest often pay the ultimate price. On Friday, Ang Kaji (pictured) and 15 other men were killed in an avalanche on the mountain’s deadliest day.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. - CM
