NEWS

The Community of Friends in Action (CoFiA) Workers Link program helps homeowners and small businesses find workers to assist them with projects. CoFiA is not an employment agency and does not charge fees or guarantee the skills of the workers. Go to our Workers Link page to learn more, and to complete an application form.

The National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County Section is presenting a forum, Immigration Reform: An American Dilemma, on Tuesday, November 18, 2014, at 12:30 p.m. The forum is free and open to the public, and will be held at Temple Emeth, 1666 Windsor Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666.

The Community of Friends in Action has been invited to be a coalition partner for this important event. If any CoFiA members are able to attend, please look for the section reserved for partners and introduce yourself as a member of the Community of Friends in Action, Inc.

Speakers include District 37 Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Moderator; Attorney Michael Wildes, a well-known immigration attorney; Rabbi Greg Litcofsky, of Temple Eman-El of West Essex in Livingston, New Jersey; and Vidalia Acevedo, of the Center for Hope and Safety. Some topics to be addressed are border security policies, family reunification, undocumented children at our borders, and undocumented immigrants and the economy.

If you have questions contact NCJWBCS at 201-385-4847 or www.ncjwbcs.org.

 

In 2014, 66,127 unaccompanied children and 66,142 families–generally mothers with young children–have arrived at the U.S. southern border. The number of children is up 88 percent since last year and 241 percent since 2009. The number of families is up 412 percent since last year.
However, the numbers are beginning to decline.

These children and families are fleeing to wherever they think they can find safety. Asylum requests from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are up 712 percent since 2009 in the neighboring countries. Honduras is known as the murder capital of the world (1900 times more murders per 100,000 people than the U.S.), while the murder rates in Guatemala and El Salvador are 800 times that of the U.S.

More than half of these child arrivals may be eligible for some form of protection. However, their chances of being awarded protection–asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile visas, or other forms of legal relief–are slim if they have no lawyers. Undocumented people are not eligible for free legal services. Even very young children are taken before an immigration judge by themselves, with no English and no comprehension of what is happening.

These statistics relate directly to U.S. foreign policy. Individuals and organizations that want to understand how this works can look at the research on the impact of the trade policies NAFTA and CAFTA on Mexico and Central America.

CoFiA is seeing a few of these children and families arriving in our area–traumatized, unprepared for the realities of life in the U.S. including school, and with nowhere to turn for help. Our very part-time staff helps as they can, but the need for each child and family is great.

Organizations that are concerned about these serious violations of human rights are trying to secure lawyers for these children and families. If you want to help, contact us at info@communityoffriendsinaction.org or call 201-598-2253.

Joselino Chocoj is a member of CoFiA and a founding member of “Por Mi Linda Guatemala”(For My Beautiful Guatemala). He is an actor and artist, best known to CoFiA as the leader of Grupo Folklorico Tikal, a group of local men who perform a traditional dance. In addition to his work as an organizer in the Fairview area, Joselino is now taking up a new endeavor as a composer and lyricist. At La Fiesta he sang “You Are Hidden Farther Than the Stars,” with music by Juan Pablo Morales Estrada, and lyrics by Joselino, sung with guitar accompaniment by The Brothers Quinac; and “12 Million,” a song about the immigrant experience for which he wrote both the words and the music. The Brothers also presented their own composition “My Mother is the Better Immigrant,” calling on immigrants who are lonely and homeless to pray to the Virgin Mary who is “a better immigrant”and is waiting for them in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Million
Words and Music by Josélino Chocoj

In someone else’s hands
We cross a river
That they call “the border.”
Now on the other side
We immediately change into
Impersonal objects.

They tempt and confuse us with
Diamonds,
Also with gold
And with the ultimate option
Money.

Where the ideal would be
Is that they treat us as
Humans,
According to Human rights..

CHORUS
Oh my God, What sadness.
Time passes, Seconds and minutes,
The hours, Also days, Months and years.

We are in the 21st Century
And some who govern us
Don’t change.
Entering and leaving
They think of material things
And not about the poor.
They think of vanity
And not about those who die in
Massacres and deserts.

We arrive at the final line.
We cross without permission
And we don’t deserve condemnation for this.

FINAL CHORUS
We are part of 12 million.
The U.S. is a beautiful country.
I call it Paradise.
People, this is a country of immigrants.
Why call us undocumented
Because we have no papers
If we are Americans?

Skin color doesn’t matter
Nor does class.
We are people, we are one
We will fight to the end.

We were born in America
And in America we can’t remain.
We are parents, We are children,
Also siblings, And ultimately,
We are family.

People, don’t separate the families.
The family is the basis of being human.
Understand if you separate what God gave us
He will be watching you.

(translated from the Spanish by Betty DeMarco)

On Oct. 3, 2013, a 66-foot refugee boat from the Libyan port of Misurata sank just outside the harbor of the island of Lampedusa; 366 people died. There were 155 survivors, 41 of them children. Only one was saved with his family.

Since then, the Italian Navy and Coast Guard have rescued 139,000 men, women and children at sea. The area they patrol extends over almost 17,000 square miles, about twice the size of New Jersey. They are there as part of Operation Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea” in Latin), conducted in coordination with Frontex, the European border management agency.

This story reminds us that the issue of migration is a global concern, with a global basis–economics and political strife. Maybe the U.S. Border Patrol should follow the example of the Italian army, organizing soccer games among the migrant children rather than incarcerating them in frigid warehouses?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/opinion/beppe-severgnini-the-italian-military-to-the-rescue.html
If the link doesn’t work, copy and paste to your browser.

The Still Standing Band contributed their talent again this year, playing a lively mix of blues, Sixties rock, and rock & roll. The Still Standing Band is Howie Bowe on guitar, bass, and vocals; Steve Wortman on keyboards, harmonica, and vocals; and Leonia natives Bob Daria on percussion and Peggy Ehrhart, guitar and bass. Many thanks to all!

We were honored to have with us a new group, consisting of singer-songwriter Joselino Chocoj and guitarrists/singers the Brothers Grimac. Joselino sang “Te Ocultas mas alla de las estrellas,”for which he wrote the lyrics and our friend Juan Pablo Morales Estrada the music. He also sang his own composition, “12 Milliones,”in which he describes the experience of being unwanted migrants in a strange land. Don Elias Garcia helped the group with preparation, and also provided “musica grabada” (recorded), including popular marimba selections.

Grupo Cajola’s Maya Mam Weavers were once again in attendance at the fiesta, with lovely Guatemalan hand-made fabrics for sale. The group contributed a portion of its earnings to CoFiA. We were pleased to be able to highlight the wonderful work of this women’s collective. For more information go to www.mayamamweavers.com. “For the Maya people, weaving has been, for thousands of years, a way to express their identity and love of beauty. It has been a way to relay their vision of the universe, earth, and humanity — that everything is interconnected, all are different threads of the same fabric and that unity exists through diversity.”

Contributions to support the work of the Community of Friends in Action are always welcome. Make checks payable to CoFiA, and mail to us at P.O. Box 313, Leonia, NJ 07605-0313 (new address). Gifts are tax deductible.

Monsy Alvarado of the RECORD published a long article on Sunday, October 19, 2014, about our friends Gloria Chocoj and Jose Estrada Lopez. Mr. Estrada is being held by immigration officials at the ICE detention center at Elizabeth. His wife Gloria is struggling to hold on to their home and care for their three American-born children. The local Guatemalan community, with CoFiA’s support, is holding a fund-raiser for the family in November. More information later. Donations could be sent made out to the Community of Friends in Action, Inc., with “Jose Estrada fund”on the memo line.

See the article here: http://www.northjersey.com/news/immigrant-families-torn-by-detentions-1.1112532. If the link doesn’t work, cut and paste the URL into your browser.

First Friends of NJ and NY works closely with immigrants who are detained in New Jersey facilities. The organization is looking for visitors or pen pals to provide some human interaction with the detainees, who are often held for months at a time while waiting hearings. They are often unable to obtain legal counsel because they are not eligible for court-mandated lawyers.

One of the ways individuals can assist the work of this important organization is to participate in their “Stamp out Despair”campaign, which collects stationary, stamps, envelopes, writing paper, and monetary contributions for phone cards for the detainees. For more information about how the program works, go to www.firstfriendsnjny.org.

CoFiA is currently in touch with a Guatemalan man who is being detained at Elizabeth Detention Center while his appeal for asylum is heard. Even though he knows he will be threatened or even killed if he is sent back to Guatemala, it is unlikely he will be granted asylum. So he will need skilled legal help if his request for a Stay of Deportation has any chance of being granted. Contact us if you would like to help–he has a wife and three American children who are having a very hard time getting by.

Another good source of information on the immigration detention system is the national website, www.detentionwatchnetwork.org.

 

Recently New York City workers and advocates rallied to demand that Cuomo stop supporting illegal sweatship businesses and start enforcing the labor law. I went to the Department of Labor in 2008 and I am STILL waiting!” said Marco Lino, who worked 78 hours a week at a market for only $350/week.” The NY Department of Labor still has 17,000 open cases and they refuse to investigate wage theft claims the full 6 years back.

Recent proposed New York legislation, the SWEAT bill, would make enforcement of the law possible.

The CoFiA wage theft committee finds the same issues here. In one case that was settled by the NJ Department of Labor allowed the errant employer to agree to pay five workers who were owed $8000 on a weekly schedule that will take seven years to collect!

Volunteers are needed to follow up on complaints we receive that assist workers who are trying to secure payment from employers. Call us at 201-598-2253. No experience needed, but the ability to speak and understand Spanish would be a big help.

An article in the New York TIMES on Monday, October 6, 2014, “A Smuggled Girl’s Odyssey of False Promises and Fear”(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/world/americas/a-smuggled-girls-odyssey-guatemala-migration-abduction.html) paints a vivid and terrifying picture of the realities of the child migrant tragedy that is currently underway.

The story is of 16 year old Cecilia’s attempt to leave Guatemala to get to the U.S., in a desperate effort to earn some money so her family could survive. Her stepfather had been murdered and her mother and five children were living in her aunt’s tiny home, with three beds for ten people. The journey is a chilling account of the young girl’s victimization by smugglers into the U.S. Like other children trying to make the journey, she was told by the smugglers that she would be given papers when she got to the U.S.–a lie that is being peddled for huge sums of money by the coyotes. Along the way the smugglers called her relatives, extorting large sums of money with the threat of imminent death for the child if the money is not paid.

“Behind the surge of young migrants showing up for a shot at the American dream is a system of cruel and unregulated capitalism with a proven ability to adapt. The human export industry…is now worth billions of dollars…and employs a growing array of opportunists who trap, rape and rob from the point of departure to the end of the road.”

CoFiA is receiving some calls from relatives who know a child has arrived at some center in the U.S. but must have a citizen to sign for them before they will be released. These children come into our society traumatized, totally unprepared for life in a strange land where they are not wanted, and often having to adapt to life with relatives–or strangers–who they do not know and are living in poverty not much less dire than what they fled.

This situation was caused by U.S. foreign policy in collusion with the dictators who we supported as they raped their own countries. We can change it by changing our policies to be consonant with the democratic principles we claim to believe.

Instead we blame–and incarcerate–the children.