07 Apr Donate to PCUN’s ICE Raid Resistance Efforts

Support PCUN’s ICE Raid Resistance Efforts:  Donate to help here

Dear ally,

We need your help to build our community’s capacity to respond to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). 

As you know, President Trump’s interior immigration executive order is slowly tearing apart families and communities across our nation. We’ve experienced this first-hand in our hometown, Woodburn Oregon.

In the early morning of February 24th, 16 farm workers were stopped by ICE on their way to work. The agents claimed they were looking for a person. When the worker answered they didn’t know that person, the agents started asking them about their immigration status. They refuse to talk. Despite their efforts to express their constitutional rights, they were still taken. Woodburn and our neighboring communities have not been the same after.

Farmworkers are thinking twice about going work. Parents are preparing their older children to parent in case they are taken. Some no longer want to seek medical assistance. Dozens of permanent residents are coming to our service center to apply for citizenship. Grades are down for students. Business is down. The fear is not about meeting basic needs. As immigrants, we know what is like to start from scratch. It’s about family and the threat of separation.

So what are we doing about it?

Following the raid we began organizing a series of Know You’re Rights trainings, which eventually led to the creation of the Mid-Willamette Valley ICE Rapid Response Network. To date, we have trained over 300 people, 26 of which are now trainers themselves. Our allies at the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition have set-up a 1-888 number our network can call into to report ICE activity. We are learning to use the Deportation Defense App created by Unite We Dream. And, we’ve organized legal defense trainings to dissect some of the incidents that have taken place through the personal testimony of those affected. This will allow to use real-life experiences to better prepare for future incidents.

Our goals—train over 5,000 more people, and through the collection of testimonies from those affected build a legal case against’ the President’s Interior Executive Order demonstrating ICE violations of immigrants’ constitutional rights.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 from this appeal to begin to scale up our current efforts. The path won’t be easy, but we can get there with your help. Thank you.

Ramon Ramirez-President of PCUN