Friend --

Thank you for all you have done over the last year to help CLUE walk with workers and immigrants in their fight for good jobs and justice. 

Thank you to all those who have already made an end of year gift to CLUE - we appreciate you.

It has been a transformational year for CLUE and we are so grateful for your presence, leadership, and support on our journey. In these challenging times, CLUE remains steadfast in its founding principles that we are strongest when our work is anchored in coalitions, grounded in non-violence, and rooted in faith.

As the actions of this administration continued to horrify our consciousness this year, CLUE continued to walk with the most vulnerable among us by accompanying housekeepers, grocery workers, port workers, and many more in their struggle for good jobs and justice. 

We also responded with moral authority that the mistreatment of our immigrant neighbors must end. In 2019, we maintained our partnership with Freedom for Immigrants to coordinate visits for those detained in Adelanto and raise funds to bond them out of detention. We also did Know Your Rights presentations to frightened immigrants throughout Los Angeles County and Orange County.

With your help, our immigration program enabled us to advocate for immigrants from arrival to advocacy, with many of our community members feeling empowered to tell their stories publicly, and engage in CLUE’s efforts to respond with nonviolence to the abuses of this Administration. 

Your end of year gift will allow CLUE to continue this vital work. Please make a secure donation by December 31.

This year, CLUE walked with Manuel, a young man from Nicaragua, whose story mirrors so many others who come to the United States in search of safety, dignity, and opportunity. 

When Manuel was just 16 years old, some men shot at his house because of his father’s political views. Yelling “traitor,” they rained bullets down on his family’s home, shooting and killing his father and brother. Manuel ran into the night as fast as he could, unable to see anything in front of him. He knew that there was no where he could go in the country and be safe from the men who tried to kill him.

Manuel fled to Honduras where he met his wife, Rosa. The couple owned and ran two kiosks in a park where they sold hats, glasses, clothes, and other items. For years, gang members extorted money from Manuel every week. When Manuel told two members of this gang that he could no longer afford to pay them, they shot both Manuel and Rosa. They were both in a coma for weeks and were hospitalized for months. 

Manuel and Rosa knew that they had no choice: they had to flee. They didn’t return to their home to get any of their belongings. They took their three children, one of whom was only three months old at the time, and the five dollars they had, and began the arduous journey to the United States.

When they first arrived in the United States, Manuel was in immigration detention for eight months and was finally reunited with his family in Los Angeles. Thankfully, Manuel and his family found CLUE and our community wrapped them in our arms. Through our Sacred Resistance and Sanctuary program, we were able to connect them with an attorney so they could apply for asylum. CLUE also provided them with necessities like food and clothing, and helped them apply for public benefits.

Today, Manuel works as a day laborer to support his family and has become an advocate for others who have stories like his. He says that he feels safe and secure in the US, but that “what happened to me still affects me.” Manuel has also become an advocate for others like him, gracefully sharing his story this year at CLUE’s asylum seeker events in Los Angeles. He and his family are members of Iglesia Bautista Fundamental. 

Stories like Manuel’s remind us why we do this work together. In reflecting on his experience, Manuel says, “There is no place in Nicaragua where I can go that I will be safe. There is no place I can go in Honduras and be safe.” As CLUE, we believe that no one should live in constant fear of violence and that all humans should have the freedom to live with dignity and safety. When people in need arrive at our shores, CLUE walks with them through the complicated and traumatizing process that follows and guides them from their arrival to advocacy. 

Your end of year gift will support CLUE’s life-changing work. 

With your help, CLUE can continue to advocate for and walk with workers and immigrants, to improve their working conditions, to protect them from violence, and to help them not just survive but thrive. There is much more work to be done, and we cannot do it alone.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for your continued support of CLUE. Please consider becoming a sustaining supporter with a monthly donation to advance this life-changing work that we do together. 

We wish each and every one of you a safe, healthy, and restorative holiday season.

In faith and solidarity, 

Michelle M. Seyler, J.D.
http://www.cluejustice.org/

PS: Can you make your gift a recurring donation? By joining our growing network of sustaining supporters, you are helping CLUE build a diverse, sustainable, and stable funding base to advance economic justice for immigrants, workers, and their families.