Big news for immigrant families

January 6, 2012

Big news today!  A new waiver process (for the 3- and 10-year bars) should help keep thousands of undocumented immigrants from being separated from their families in the U.S.  From the Associated Press:

(AP) WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans a rule change to help reduce the time illegal immigrant spouses and children are separated from citizen relatives while they try to win legal status in the United States, a senior administration official said.

Currently, illegal immigrants must leave the country before they can ask the government to waive a three- to 10-year ban on legally coming back to the U.S. The length of the ban depends on how long they have lived in the U.S. without permission.

The official said Thursday the new rule would let children and spouses of citizens ask the government to decide on the waiver request before the illegal immigrant heads to his or her home country to apply for a visa. The illegal immigrants still must go home to finish the visa process to come back to the U.S., but getting the waiver ahead of time could reduce the time an illegal immigrant is out of the country.

The waiver shift is the latest move by President Barack Obama to make changes to immigration policy without congressional action.

Read more | Immigration resources

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Posted by Tammy Alexander

COP17 Durban Agreement Falls Short

December 20, 2011

Youth for Eco-Justice at a demonstration in Durban. WCC/LWF/W. Noack

In early December, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met for the 17th time in Durban, South Africa to discuss the international community’s response to climate change. Though the governments agreed to continue working on a comprehensive treaty, this agreement falls short of providing climate justice to the most vulnerable.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) joined the strong presence of faith communities advocating in Durban. The quotes below reflect the urgency needed to combat climate change and to foster climate justice.

The WCC’s official statement reads, “In Durban, religious communities have come together in various ways to express that climate change is also a moral and spiritual crisis. We proclaim together: We have faith. Act now for climate justice” the statement requested.

Expressing his views regarding the COP17, the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said, “Though a minimum deal was achieved at the last minute to keep the Kyoto Protocol, make some steps towards a new legally binding agreement in 2015, and implement the Green Climate Fund, the overall Durban outcome is far from being enough to respond to the currently disappearing countries and future generations.”

“We need to listen to vulnerable countries and populations, and think of the legacy we are leaving to our children. Churches should continue to act and pray, especially during this time when we prepare for Christmas, the event when God sent his Son, Jesus, to save our beloved planet,” he added.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Posted by emilywh

Mennonite Church USA responds to appeal from Palestinian Christians

November 10, 2011

Mennonite Church USA responded recently to the “Kairos” document written by Palestinian Christian leaders in 2009:

“Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God,” wrote the 15 Palestinian church leaders. “We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land.”
Read the entire news release from Mennonite Church USA.

Leave a Comment » | Issues, Middle East, News Stories | Permalink
Posted by Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach

Lakota Tribes “Refuse to Cooperate” With Tar Sands Proponents

November 4, 2011

From Jason Cappola of Truthout, 11/2/2011:

The Keystone XL pipeline and a message from indigenous resistance.

As people gather to protest the greed and corruption of Wall Street in downtown Manhattan and throughout the world, the territories of indigenous peoples and nations have been the front lines of this conflict for a long, long, time.

A protester against the Keystone XL pipeline is arrested outside the White House in this screengrab from "The Indigenous Call: Take Back Our Future."(Image Credit: StopKeystoneXL)

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Pukatawagan Cree Nation, is an anti-tar sands campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network, and is responsible for coordinating an indigenous team which operates both in the United States and Canada supporting locally led tactics and strategies aimed at stopping the Canadian tar sands expansion and its encroachment into traditional and treaty territories of first nations in Alberta and British Columbia.

This intervention, says Thomas-Muller, also includes the United States and binational pipelines such as the existing Keystone pipeline as well as the currently proposed Keystone XL, which will travel over 1,500 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast….

Read Truthout‘s entire article here.

See “The Indigenous Call: Take Back the Future” video from StopKeystoneXL here.

Join a nonviolent rally around the White House on November 6 sponsored by Tar Sands Action.

Leave a Comment » | Environment, Issues, Native American, News Stories, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by emilywh

Field of Hope

September 1, 2011

From Aljazeera. 

In Kasika, eastern Congo, women load new tools supplied by MCC and head home to begin preparing their fields. (MCC Photo/Tim Lind).

In the midst of despair, one woman’s courageous effort to help DR Congo’s rape survivors. This heartbreaking story will also leave you inspired. I hope it inspires you to advocate for Congolese women.

Click here to see the video.

Leave a Comment » | Africa, Issues, News Stories | Permalink
Posted by Patricia Kisare

Latin American evangelical leaders send open letter to U.S. churches

August 30, 2011

Pictured are Marcial Reyes and Paulino Pardo who participated in a MCC water project by digging trenches in La Cuchilla, Bolivia. Families now have a faucet outside their homes and don't have to walk long distances to carry water. Credit: Melissa Engle/MCC

On August 18 multiple Latin American evangelical leaders sent an open letter to U.S. churches.  It reads, in part:

We know the generosity and solidarity of the American people and the assistance programs to the poor that operate through churches and civil society organizations in Latin America. It is therefore inconceivable to us that the wealthy make no effort to take responsibility for the debt generated by the country as a whole. Paying more taxes will not bankrupt them. Cutting social benefits jeopardizes the lives of the retired, the sick and others who are in need. Is this not brutally unjust?

As the Congress works to address the U.S. federal deficit, policies have already disproportionately affected low- and moderate-income families in the States and worldwide.  You can stand with these leaders in asking your representatives in Congress to truly live up to commitments for ‘shared sacrifice’.

Click here to send an email to your representatives and urge them to protect funding for foreign assistance programs.

Read the open letter | Read the press release

Leave a Comment » | Events, Global Economic Justice, Issues, Latin America/Caribbean, News Stories, U.S. Economic Justice | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Christina Warner

Faith Leaders Call for DREAM Act Sabbath

July 15, 2011

On July 12, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) held a press conference to announce the DREAM Sabbath.  Among the faith leaders in attendance was Dr. Fred Kniss, Provost, Eastern Mennonite University.

The DREAM Act Sabbath is a faith-based campaign in which the faith community will encourage congregations and individuals to focus a worship service, or part of a worship service, on the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act provides undocumented students with a chance to earn legal status if they came to the US as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character and complete two years of college or military service. The campaign will begin September 18 and run through October 9 at churches, synagogues and mosques around the country.

At the press conference, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the largest Latino Christian organization in America strongly advocated for passage of the DREAM Act, saying, “Without a doubt, Christ stood committed to the care and protection of the most vulnerable, especially children. To continue to punish these children is nothing less than anti-Christian, anti-American and morally reprehensible.”

More about DREAM Sabbath | MCC DREAM resources

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Posted by Tammy Alexander

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