Bloggers Unite for Refugee Day

Today over 10,000 bloggers from around the world will unite to raise their voices on behalf of more than 40 million voiceless refugees. We are asking the world to face the atrocities so many human beings must endure and to join hearts and minds to help bring forward information, understanding and action.

Please join with bloggers today around the world to tell your story, share your thoughts and be part of the global solution to a global problem. It is in our power to bring people to act to make a change. The core cause of Bloggers Unite and Refugees United is information. Information leads to empowerment. Bloggers Unite enables ordinary folks to make an extraordinary impact.We hope you will sign up to participate. Your actions will matter. Your words can help change lives.

For more information and how you can participate, visit the Bloggers Unite website by linking here.

Together, our voices will make a difference!

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Department of Homeland Security or Department of Economic Ruin?

This release came today from the National Immigration Forum. Established in 1982, the National Immigration Forum is dedicated to embracing and upholding America’s tradition as a nation of immigrants. The Forum advocates and builds public support for public policies that welcome immigrants and refugees and are fair to and supportive of newcomers to our country.

For Immediate Release
July 24, 2008

Contact:
Douglas Rivlin rivlin@immigrationforum.org)
(202) 383-5989 or (202) 441-0680 (mobile)

Department of Homeland Security or Department of Economic Ruin?
Oversight Welcome

Washington, DC – On Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 11 a.m., the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law will hold a hearing on “Immigration Raids: Postville and Beyond.” The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan, pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington.

Two months after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted the largest immigration enforcement raid in the nation’s history, devastating the community of Postville, Iowa in the process, the furor over DHS’s misguided immigration enforcement continues. Today’s oversight hearing addresses the range of due process violations and sleight-of-hand procedures used by DHS and the Department of Justice to transform undocumented workers into identity theft criminals with the stroke of a pen, using the threat of long jail sentences to coerce undocumented workers into taking deportation orders as the path of least resistance.

The Postville raid has confirmed for many that DHS’s deportation-only policies destroy not only individual lives, but entire communities, leading to the conclusion that the Department of Homeland Security should more accurately be called the Department of Economic Ruin. Enforcement-on-steroids in the absence of real reform will not fix our profoundly broken immigration system or solve the problem of 12 million immigrants in the country illegally. We need genuine immigration reform that addresses the underlying problems of undocumented workers and all other workers alike. We also need balance in workplace enforcement that puts at least as much emphasis on enforcing labor and workplace safety laws and holds employers at least as accountable as unauthorized workers in such situations. We call on Congress to change the system before DHS actions destroy more communities and families.

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IRCO to Hold Event This Evening Marking World Refugee Day

Portland, OR--This evening, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) is holding a fundraiser titled “Jazz for Peace” to mark World Refugee Day. The fundraiser will begin at 6:30 at the World Trade Center in Downtown Portland.

IRCO was founded 32 years ago by refugees to help incoming refugees. The mission of the IRCO is to promote the integration of refugees, immigrants, and the community at large into a self-sufficient, healthy, and inclusive multiethnic society. Among the services the organization provides includes employment preparation and placement, and networks of culturally specific continuums of social services

On Wednesday, KATU news interviewed Rowanne Haley and Sheila Garcia from the organization. That interview can be watched by linking here.

In 2000, The United Nations General Assembly designated June 20th as World Refugee Day to recognize and celebrate the contribution of refugees throughout the world.

For more details on how to get involved with IRCO or information about tickets for the Jazz for Peace event taking place this evening, please call their central office at 503 234-1541

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