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Dear Friend -- Amid the uncertainty and chaos of this global pandemic, CLUE is working harder than ever to bring faith communities, the labor movement, and the immigrants’ rights movement into deep, dynamic partnership. We aim not merely to help our communities survive, but to transform our society in ways that seemed unimaginable just a few months ago. Please read below some of the things we have been up to since California’s Stay-At-Home order went into effect. And stay tuned tomorrow for an update on CLUE's annual Giants of Justice breakfast. First, here are a few words of "hello!" from some of our CLUE staff:
Table of ContentsIntroducing the CLUE Spiritual Care HotlineLos Angeles
Long Beach and South Bay
Orange County
Immigration Program
Introducing the CLUE Spiritual HotlineThis week, CLUE launched its first ever CLUE Spiritual Care hotline to accompany our workers and our community in their spiritual and emotional needs during COVID19. CLUE clergy are available to provide spiritual care in English and Spanish, Monday through Friday, from 12pm to 8pm. If you know of someone in need, please share the information below.
Los AngelesCLUE joined the Healthy LA Coalition with over 200 other organizations to push for economic relief packages from the Los Angeles City Council and the County Board of Supervisors. CLUE Faith-Rooted Organizer, Pastor Cue Jn-Marie, brought the voices of Skid Row to the center of the coalition’s demands. See the Healthy LA Town Hall here. Pastor Cue-Jn Marie, CLUE Immigration Director Guillermo Torres, and Rev. Walter Contreras provided moral support to the Reclaim Housing movement as they took over thirteen vacant homes owned by Cal Trans. After a sustained campaign of public pressure from organized
university workers in partnership with CLUE’s Central Los Angeles
Committee, USC announced its commitment to pay campus workers
through the end of the semester. CLUE Faith-Rooted Organizer
Ashley Gonzales is leading virtual trainings with UNITE HERE Local 11
volunteers learning to assist laid off workers applying for
unemployment benefits. To let workers know about programs your
congregation offers, click here.
To volunteer your time at a union food bank, email Ashley at
[email protected].
Above, CLUE's Faith-Rooted Organizer, Ashley Gonzales, on her way to Unite HERE's food bank. Long Beach and South BayIn Long Beach, CLUE is playing a key role in the Healthy Long Beach coalition. We advocated for and won an eviction moratorium in Long Beach on March 25th, which prohibits evictions of people who are unable to pay rent due to the impact of COVID-19 until May 31st and allows renters to put off payments until the end of November. We interviewed essential workers in Long Beach and lobbied the Mayor and City Council members in support of measures to provide worker protections, including paid sick leave, personal protective equipment, worker recall, and worker retention provisions. On April 14th, the council voted unanimously to begin drafting a package of ordinances reflecting our demands. We are anticipating these ordinances will return for a vote in the City Council in May. To contact the Mayor and find your City Council member, click here. Current city and federal policies leave port truck drivers behind because they are misclassified as independent contractors. Our Long Beach and South Bay clergy created a video to share their gratitude and prayers with the port truck drivers and remind them they are not alone. Michael Whitehead, a port truck driver, shared his story with us on Zoom. We are inviting congregations to share his story in their e-newsletters or in worship services as a virtual Labor in the Pulpit to advocate for truck drivers’ protections with the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Orange CountyCLUE Faith-Rooted Organizer, Adam Overton, helped set up a pop-up food bank in San Juan Capistrano that distributed non-perishable foods to 80 recently terminated hotel workers and their families. CLUE helped with a letter-writing campaign to Governor Newsom demanding the state declare grocery and pharmacy workers as “essential workers” in order to obtain more protective gear. The CLUE network has also reached out to OC's city councils urging them to implement immediate rent moratoriums. We have lobbied the OC District Attorney, Sheriff, and jails to push for immediate release of incarcerated persons at high risk of COVID19 infection, and we have contacted congressional representatives urging them to demand ICE release their most vulnerable detainees. Thanks to the support of our community, the City of Santa Ana established a stronger eviction moratorium for those financially impacted by COVID-19 and enacted a rent freeze on rent increases until May 31st or until Governor Newsom’s emergency order is lifted. However, these protections are under threat as the City Council members of Santa Ana are receiving pressure from landlords who want to be able to increase rents at this time. CLUE Faith-Rooted Organizer, Lucero Garcia, organized congregations to sign on to a community letter to the Santa Ana City Council ahead of their meeting on Tuesday, May 5th. Thanks to the fourteen other organizations, including congregations, that signed on to the letter. Immigration ProgramOn Friday, April 24th, 2020 CLUE organized a car procession, prayer, and protest at Adelanto Immigration Detention Center to demand that ICE release all detained immigrants in light of the threat of the coronavirus, especially the most vulnerable: those suffering from pre-existing medical conditions, including mental health issues, and the elderly.
Above, CLUE community members protesting at the Adelanto Detention Center. On the same day, a federal judge in Los Angeles granted a class-wide preliminary injunction demanding that immigration release a large number of detained immigrants from Adelanto, the federal detention facility in San Bernardino County. This action was a powerful prophetic witness that helped to amplify the voices for freedom of immigrants suffering in horrible detention centers throughout the US. The action also demanded that Adelanto City Council members and the Mayor deny GEO (the private for-profit company that runs Adelanto Detention Center) a permit to expand the facility. The Adelanto Detention Center currently has 1,940 beds. There is an attempt being made to expand the detention center to hold 2,690 immigrants, despite warnings from public health officials to release incarcerated people and practice CDC distancing guidelines. The Mayor must deny the expansion and protect thousands of families from ICE’s and GEO’s cruel detention and deportation system. We will be calling on the Mayor of Adelanto to vote against the GEO expansion. Below is his contact information. We need your calls to help stop this expansion. Please consider engaging in this call to action via email, tweet or call to Mayor Reyes. Mayor of the City of Adelanto, Gabriel Reyes Call or Text/ Phone: (760)987-5763 Email: [email protected] Finding ShelterWhen an urgent request went out about four weeks ago to congregations to offer shelter or housing in their buildings for vulnerable immigrants in immigration detention centers who face grave danger in light of the threat of the coronavirus, two congregations immediately answered the call. Pastor Misi Tagaloa of Second Samoan Congregational Church of Long Beach-UCC, moved by justice and compassion, welcomed recently release detainee Lionel Bogle, who had been held at Adelanto Detention Center for about three years. He was released by an order of a judge because he suffered from a medical condition. The release was made possible by pro-bono attorneys, referred by CLUE visitation volunteer Blanca Malpartida-Girard, who had been visiting him for some time.
Above, one of our immigrant neighbors for whom we found shelter. Also stepping up is Pastor Nelson Castorillo and the First United Methodist Church of Wilmington, who have received multiple former detained asylees who had no other sponsor or host to shelter them. Now, they are receiving a former unaccompanied minor who fled violence in Central America. This youth, who was held in a government detention shelter for minors, was transferred to Adelanto Immigration Detention Center about three years ago when he turned eighteen years old. Thanks to the work of attorney Lindsay Toczylowski of IMMDef, he was ordered released by a judge due to his medical condition. CLUE is very grateful to these two leaders and congregations for all the love and support they give to immigrants.
Above, CLUE's Immigration Program Director, Guillermo Torres, and one of our immigrant neighbors for whom we found shelter. CLUE, along with ECAS, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, Matthew25/SouthernCalifornia, We Care, Presbytery of the Pacific, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and Cal-PAC of the United Methodist Church continues to organize faith communities to help immigrants in immigration detention centers with current medical conditions that are at high risk of contracting the coronavirus. CLUE will be coordinating more efforts for prophetic action, finding supportive for those who need shelter, and building a network to provide support. How you can help: Thanks to those of you who have already donated to sustain this work.
To get involved or for more information, please contact: CLUE Director of Immigration, Guillermo Torres: [email protected] or 323-228-2753; and CLUE Faith-Rooted Organizer, David Jaimes: [email protected] or 714-392-8840. Thank you for being on this journey with us. CLUE: Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice |
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