Immigrant Day Of Action - Rally & Speak Out

 Dec 18, noon - 4 pm

Pershing Field (Central Ave & Manhattan Ave) & Bergenline and 48th Street

 

Immigrants are part of the 99% and on December 18th we will march and Speak-Out about this issue to demand immigrant justice! Join us as we meet on Central Avenue and Manhattan Ave, Jersey City @ 12 pm to speak out and reach out to the community. We will share our storie...s and conditions of migration and ask that the community share theirs as well. We will then march down Central Avenue. The second part of this event will take place on Bergenline Avenue and 48th Street in Union City at 2:30, where again we will speak out and reach to our community. We will share our stories, and ask that they share theirs as well. We are now at a crucial point in time in this country where laws like SB1070 in Arizona and copycat laws like those in Alabama, Georgia, and other states are being passed denying immigrants basic human rights and promoting racism and hatred. We march against this. We also march against the corporations who support anti-immigrant legislation so they can make billions of dollars by detaining immigrants in private detention centers and deporting nearly 400,000 people per year. We also recognize the destructive role that these corporations play in exploiting resources and labor in our home countries which forces millions to migrate. December 18th is the International Day of Migrants and we stand in solidarity with those world wide who are proclaiming Immigrant Rights as Human Rights. Come and share your story and hear other stories of migration to either of these locations and stand up for Immigrant Rights. Because Immigrant Rights are Human Rights!!

Lenten Campaign Immigrants Pilgrimage

march 9,

Liberty State Park in front of the footbridge to Ellis Island

Freedom Way

9.30 am  - 8pm (12 mile walk)

CONTACT:

Rev. Gene Squeo (English) 201-207-0112

Br. John Skrodinsky (English & Spanish) 973-896-0444

Faith Community Begins Lenten Campaign “Lamenting” Treatment of Immigrants with 12 Mile Pilgrimage

Day of Action to Highlight Issue of Immigration Detention

JERSEY CITY, NJ—Over 100 People of faith and immigrant rights advocates from over 30 different organizations across the state of New Jersey and New York are expected to gather at Liberty State Park in front of the foot bridge to Ellis Island on the Christian feast day of Ash Wednesday, March 9th at 9:30 AM. for a press conference and interfaith prayer service before walking 12 miles to the Elizabeth Detention Center to draw attention to the suffering that is inflicted on immigrants their families, and the communities in which they live by the U.S.’s current immigration and detention policies.



This day of action is the second annual event of its kind, and is intended to highlight the differences between our nation’s history of welcoming immigrants, symbolized by Ellis Island, and today’s harsh realities for immigrants. “Ellis Island was once referred to as the ‘Golden Door’. It is a far cry from the barbed wire fences at the gates of the Elizabeth Detention Center,” said Margaret White of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of NJ.



The pilgrimage is the opening event of a statewide Lenten Campaign to “Recognize the Human Value of Immigrants” called “Lament, Compassion, Solidarity & Conversion”. As a coordinated part of the event, people of all faith traditions are being asked to gather at their local house of worship or elsewhere in their home community throughout the six weeks of Lent to Lament our country’s current immigration policy, show Compassion for the suffering of immigrants, act in Solidarity with immigrants and pray for a Conversion of hearts so that comprehensive, humane immigration reform can be enacted. The campaign will culminate in a Migrants Way of the Cross in Newark on April 22nd (Good Friday).



WHAT: Press conference, interfaith prayer service, pilgrimage walk to Elizabeth Detention Center, vigil



WHEN: March 9th 9:30 a.m. (press conference and interfaith prayer service); walk ends at the Elizabeth -Detention Center at IRATE & First Friends 13th annual Ash Wednesday prayer vigil at 6:00 p.m.