Happy New Year!

Body: Pledge to not be a bystander

Folks, I think most of us know by now that thoughts and prayers, aren't cutting it. Nor, sadly, is simply sharing information on social media. People are dying in detention facilites, legal immigration programs are being destroyed, 60,000 refugees have been turned away to freeze in the streets of Mexico, asylum laws are being eroded to nothing, families are scared, kids are being ripped from their parents. And we are letting this happen as a country. We are bystanders. That is not said to accuse but rather to challenge. The years are now passing, the devestation spreading, and, sadly, the body count is growing as most of us watch in horror and feel terrible and understandably helpless. But if we mean it when we say that we are horrified by what is happening to immigrants and refugees than we must behave bodly and be willing to put a little of our own selves at risk (heads up people of priviledge!). Lets make 2020 the year where we refuse to be bystanders to human suffering. 

One campaign to definitiely pay attention to right now is the Never Again movement. After an awesome start in 2019, the movement is heating up and gaining visibility. The website is here. Never Again is a movement led by Jews around the US focusing on unrelentless, bold action to use their bodies to physically disrupt ICE's operations nationwide. As I scrolled through down the webpage one phrase stood out to me: WE ARE NOT FUCKING AROUND. That, exactly, is the 2020 attitude I am looking for. Check out Never Again. Explore their materials, take a pledge not to be a bystander, learn about resources in your area, and get toolkits about how to take action. Seriously. Check. Them. Out. Be inspired. Lets get our bodies in the way to make it impossible for Homeland Security to continue their campaign of cruelty

See also: volunteering on the border, sponsoring an asylum seeker

Money: Invest in grassroots, collaborative work

Look, Santa Fe Dreamers Project will always need your donations. This is because nearly 50% of our operating budget comes from generous individual donations of all sizes, from people who know that giving money to organizations on the front lines is one of the best ways to express dissent and provide resources for the fight. Most of you who are reading this know this because you donate to us and you know that we do killer things with your dollars. You can donate here. Always. But in the spirit of the new year and knowing in my bones that the only way we will win this fight is collectively, here are 10 amazing grassroots orgs, some old friends and some new ones, to consider for your 2020 giving:

• Innovation Law Lab Building collaborative projects in detention spaces and BURNING IT DOWN in the fight against Trump's immigration policies
• Trans Queer Pueblo Cultivating leadership among LGBTQ folx and migrants of color to fight for social justice.
• Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project Envisioning a world where no one is forced to give up their homeland, where all Black LGBTQIA+ people are free and liberated.
• Las Americas Working with a huge amount of heart in the heart of the borderlands of El Paso/Juarez.
• Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network Organizing for immigrant justice in Washington State. Home of some serious chingonas. 
• Queer Detainee Empowerment Project Assisting people coming out of detention in buidling thriving, powerful lives
• Pueblos Sin Fronteras Defending migrants from human rights abuse across Mexico and the United States.
• Freedom for Immigrants Dedicating themselves to abolishing ICE detention and connecting to people isolated in immigration prison.
• Al Otro Lado Holding the fight down in Tijuana. Seriously holding it down. 
• Project Corazon Mobilizing lawyers to be in the spaces they are needed most.

Vote: Blue is just the beginning

The vote is on everyone's minds this year. Hopefully not just the presidential campaign but also the critical congressional races in the House and Senate and all of our statewide and local elections as well. After three years of monsterous Trump administration policy towards immigrants and refugees, there is an understandable connection between a democratic vote and a vote for better immigration policies. It is critical that we do not accept that on face value. Simply not being Republican or performing basic opposition to Trump's policies cannot be the measure of electability if we are committed to radical change in this country. Immigrants, advocates, and allies will testify to the horrors of the Obama administration policies that, for example, deported millions and reinvigorated the practice of family detention. We cannot repeat that era. We must be bold in our demands of our leaders and they must know that our votes belong to us.

One resource that frames these issues nicely is the Migrant Justice Platform from a commission of grassroots activists all over the United States. It is an unflinching set of principles that frames what can be possible, a blueprint for actual progressive change. Check it out. Make your list of questions. Don't let our politicians tell us what isn't possible. 

Here are just a couple examples of questions you can ask candidates at every level and demand answers to: 

• Local/Municipal/City/County
  • How do you plan to implement/strengthen a sanctuary policy prohibiting the use of local resources to support ICE operations?
  • How do your proposed wage and housing policies at the local level support the rights of immigrants to thrive in the community?
• Statewide
  • Do you support private detention contracts between ICE and correctional corporations? Where do you stand on banning corporate detention contracts as California did in 2019? 
  • Do you support our state becoming a sanctuary and ending state level cooperation with ICE?
• Congressional
  • If the Supreme Court allows the DACA program to end, how will you ensure that DACA recipients are protected from deportation and losing work authorization?
  • Where do you stand on defunding certain DHS operations that terrorize immigrants and refugees?
• Presidential
  • Will you end the Migrant Protection Protocal (MPP) program on your first day in office? 
  • Will you end ICE detention?

Voice: Be like Greta 

Your voice is the most important thing that you have, especially considering everything you do with your body, your money, and your vote is an extension of it. Yet using your voice can be one of the most enigmatic challenges out there. I keep thinking about one of the icons of 2019, Greta Thunburg, and how she didn't literally did not speak for a long time because of her depression about climate change. But then, when she did decide to speak, an improbable young woman became a historically powerful voice in the fight for climate justice. I believe that so many of us share her conviction, whether it is about climate change, immigrant rights, gun control, housing, or any of the issues that affect the communities we live in. We look around and see something terrible and we know in our hearts and in our bones that we have to fix it. So the challenge that faces all of us in 2020 is to be more like Greta. Trust our convictions. Trust in our hearts. Trust our voices, even if they shake. It brings to mind a quote, which is often attributed to Nelson Mandela but, I believe, was written by Marianne Williamson: Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

See also: writing op-eds, organizing teach-ins, walking out, calling your congress people (not only up but out too)

Happy New Year. I hope some of these suggestions can inspire a resolution to fight a little harder, a little smarter,  a little more like peoples' lives depend on it, and most of all, to fight together.

My very best for a bright, brave, and bold 2020,


Allegra Love
Director, Santa Fe Dreamers Project