HARVEST OF EMPIRE, a full length documentary on the role of the US economic and military interests in the unprecedented wave of migration that is transforming our nation’s cultural and economic landscape. A discussion with the filmmaker follows the film. The event is presented in conjunction with Resource, Education, and Awareness by Latinos (R.E.A.L.)

CoFiA members and friends will want to see this important documentary in which the co-host of
Democracy Now! Juan Gonzalez, shows how US policies have forced so many people to flee their home countries to try to find a way to survive in this country. The policies of the current administration are aimed at driving them back to the same environments from which they have fled.

Presented at the Puffin Cultural Forum on Friday, April 21, at 7:00 p.m. Reservations are suggested–tix@puffinfoundation.org. $5. Puffin Cultural Forum, 20 Puffin Way, Teaneck. 201-836-3499.

Spring is here and CoFiA is receiving requests for workers to help with various jobs around the house. If you need a helper, please go to the web site, click on Hire a Worker, and read the suggestions about how to make this process work successfully. Fill out the simple form at the bottom of the page and send it to us at info@communityoffriendsinaction.org.
Written requests are much better than phone calls when working in two languages. Be sure we have ALL the information needed to fulfill your request–directions to your house are helpful, and a time period with some flexibility. Be realistic: “I need someone tomorrow” or “We need a person to help move a sofa on Saturday” are not requests we can easily fulfill. And please be generous. Guarantee at least 4 hours of work, and offer coffee and lunch.

We can usually find skilled masons who can rebuild steps, patios, sidewalks, walls, and more. Sheetrock is a familiar specialty, and we know many people who are excellent painters, spacklers, and the like.

Lawn cleanup is a popular request, as well as maintenance of gardens and shrubs.  Often a worker and employer establish a relationship and the worker returns often, when needed. Recently we have received and fulfilled requests for people to clean houses. 

Many of the workers are members of our CoFiA “Saturday group,”or people who have worked with us in the past.  It is much safer to locate reliable workers through our Workers Link program than to pick them up on the street.

While most of us were grumbling about the late-season snow, the workers were cheerfully at work clearing it away. CoFiA had quite a number of calls and was able to fulfill the requests pretty easily. Only one situation was dicey, when a homeowner was reluctant to pay adequately for more than five hours of clearing ice. She did, however, think it over and provided a more appropriate stipend.

Now that spring is here, we anticipate many requests for help in cleaning up winter-battered lawns, window cleaning, painting, dry wall, etc. If you need workers, please use the “Hire a Worker” request form on the web site and send it by email. This makes it much easier for us to get the full information about the job and judge whether it is a reasonable request.

Since early January, when we were still adjusting to having lost our home of many years at Grace Church in Palisades Park, we have been distributing tickets for inexpensive lunches at two of the Guatemalan restaurants in town to the workers on the street. This has been a popular alternative to the lunch program, with more than 30 people taking advantage of it every Monday.

However, as has been customary, the need is diminishing as work is picking up, so we are discontinuing the program for this season. We are still looking for another site where we can offer lunches next fall.

As the photo shows, the lunch program not only provided a hot meal for hungry workers, it also gave us the opportunity to present programs on various topics important to immigrants in our communities. Here our friend Elias was discussing the opportunity for workers to participate in OSHA training sponsored by CoFiA. This training not only helps workers know more about how to be safe on the job, it also provides a very important certification card documenting that they have completed this course. Without the venue of the lunch program, we have no ready access to groups of workers.

So our search continues. Please help us by keeping your eyes open for a site somewhere on Broad Avenue between Palisades and Columbia, where we can provide these important services. And thanks!

As we all know, the Trump Administration is threatening to deport many people who have lived here without documents for many years. In the communities in which CoFiA is involved, reactions from immigrant residents range from fear to being muy tranquilo–peaceful. As an organization, we are looking for the most realistic and helpful ways to be supportive. We are particularly concerned about the undocumented parents of American children, who face a future in which they MIGHT be deported without warning and without their children.

In the seminar, “Supporting Immigrants,” sponsored by several organizations including the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice of which CoFiA is a member, participants will have the opportunity to discuss these concerns and many others. For more information call 201-836-5187.

An article in the Bergen RECORD on Friday, March 3, 2017, documents why access to immigrant labor will be vital to success of the plans of the Trump administration to repair and revitalize the nation’s infrastructure. Written by Conor Sen, a Bloomberg View columnist who is a portfolio manager for New River Investments in Atlanta and a contributor to the Atlantic and Business Insider, the article argues that for these plans to succeed, 570,000 additional construction workers would be required, in addition to more truck drivers, project managers, environmental specialists, and all other support staff to complete projects.

Sen says that such growth hasn’t happened since 1946. Over the past 12 months construction employment growth was only 170,000 jobs. And in addition to the labor required for infrastructure, there is a growing demand for residential construction which is currently adding around 50,000 construction jobs per year.

Meanwhile, the construction labor market at current wages is tight and has been tightening for the past several years. Last summer, there were only around 400,000 unemployed construction workers, around the lowest level since the late 1990s. So to fill the unprecedented need for workers, they are going to have to come from other industries, outside the labor force, or abroad.

Up to 1.1 million construction workers in the U.S. are undocumented, so stepping up deportations, as the Trump administration is planning, would further deplete an already-too-small construction
labor pool. Without radical changes to immigration policy, we might have capacity for an additional 50,000 construction workers per year for infrastructure projects–far short of the 570,000 needed for Trump’s infrastructure proposal.

Add to this the fact that just 223,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, which is the fewest in nearly 44 years–the lowest since March 1973 when President Richard Nixon was in the White House.

So–how can it make sense to propose to deport some 11 million workers, already in residence in the U.S., talented, and eager to work?

Adapted from “Math will kill President Trump’s infrastructure plan,” by Conor Sen. The RECORD Friday, March 3, 2017, p. 11A; and “Jobless claims lowest since ’73”, also from the RECORD on that date.

For several years the Community of Friends in Action has received generous grants from the Leonia Community Chest. The grants are awarded at the annual Community Chest Agency night, which this year was held on Thursday, March 2, 2017, at the United Methodist Church of Leonia. Margaret White, Chair, made a presentation about the current challenges that CoFiA is facing in this uncertain environment. CoFiA members Pete Shanno and Norm Smith accepted the award on behalf of our organization.

Various organizations in Leonia, including the Community Chest, and many individual Leonians, have been steadfast in their support of CoFiA. Without this help we would not be able to provide assistance to the immigrant community in our area, offer educational programs to the community in general. Many thanks!

About 4.5 million U.S. citizen children have at least one undocumented parent. This film is the story of 14 of them who travel from Minnesota to Guatemala to meet their grandparents for the first time. There are many such children in Bergen County and CoFiA is in touch with several who have made this emotional and heart-warming journey. It provides a factual and beautiful antidote to the many hate-filled messages we are all receiving about immigrants today.

The film will be shown on Thursday, March 16, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. at Central Unitarian Church, 156 Forest Avenue., Paramus, followed by discussion. Doors open at 7:00 and all are welcome. Donations gratefully accepted.

The director, Luis Argueta, will join the discussion of the film by Skype; Margaret White, Chair, Community of Friends in Action, Inc., will be present in person. For more information call 201-262-6300.