Friends,

I wish to share in the sentiments of our Central Iowa colleagues at AFSC, AILA and Iowa AIR:

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Immigration Proposal (I cannot call it reform) in the Senate didn't get the votes necessary to continue the Immigration debate (see the roll call below). Whether we like it or not however, we can expect home and workplace raids to continue in the rise; we need to be prepared for a wave of strict immigration and other law enforcement.

Immigrants need to be prepared individually, and as families to exercise their rights (the few they still have), and to tell their stories—an important way to revert the anti-immigrant sentiment. Communities need to be prepared to respond to the chaotic aftermath of these law enforcement operations: children without one or both parents and/or families without a breadwinner, slowed down businesses, media frenzy, rampant fear and suffering.

I would like to encourage you all, to come up with ideas to implement a few things:

a) Organize Know Your Rights workshops for immigrants in your local community

b) Identify immigrant supporters in your community to organize “Emergency Response Teams” in case of a raid at home or in the workplace.

c) Organize local community forums to educate voters on why it’s important for Iowa to welcome immigrants and support Comprehensive Immigration Reform (several of us in this list, are prepared to speak and/or to help you form Speakers).

d) Come up with some key sentences to tell the media if they approach you for comments.

e) Try to attend/participate in the caucuses, and propose Comprehensive Immigration Reform as an issue important to the state.

f) Keep in touch, keep learning about immigrants contributions, and above all, encourage immigrants to tell their stories (help them to write them in English). There is a website that will be compiling those stories, the address is: http://www.dreamsacrossamericaonline.org/ all you have to do is click on the window that says “share your story.”

You do not need to be involved in everything, choose one activity that you’re passionate about it or for which you have the skills already, any help is appreciated!