Every two months or so, Solidarity Room Project likes to update you on what's been going on with our project and in the news, and opportunities on how to support asylum seekers in our area. We bring you this one on International Migrants Day (see more below).
This holiday season, we are asking for you to consider sharing a room in your home or an empty apartment with an asylum seeker. Volunteers can meet with you to discuss your questions and concerns, bring up important considerations you might not have thought of, and provide financial assistance. Please get in touch for more information!
For those of you just hearing about us, The Solidarity Room Project (SRP) is an all-volunteer run organization that fund-raises to provide living costs and helps coordinate other support for individuals and families navigating the asylum-seeking process in New York City, as a dignified response to threats of flooding sanctuary cities with asylum-seekers.
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More info on our website.
PROJECT UPDATES
Since June 2019, our main focus has been supporting an indigenous family from Honduras navigating the frustrating asylum process in Brooklyn, NY. They have faced so much in the past 2 years since they entered the US: detention in separate prisons despite not breaking any laws, multiple living situations, finding lawyers to take on their case, withstanding ongoing harsh treatment from ICE and ICE contractors, and coming to terms with building a new life in NYC with the uncertainty of not knowing if their plea for help will be denied. All this stress has compounded for them; the parents have split up, and are now figuring out co-parenting their 20 month old on top of everything else. As we announced in our last newsletter, one of the parents has received legal working papers, and is loving the feeling of being able to support herself and her child. At the end of the month, she will make the transition away from financial support from SRP, while continuing to live in the apartment SRP connected them with. We are incredibly happy for her to be moving toward self-sufficiency and independence in her journey, and will remain friends and occasional babysitters when needed.
The bittersweet part of this story is that we have no Solidarity Rooms left. We are an all-volunteer group that depends on regular people in NYC to open their homes to asylum seekers as an act of welcome and political resistance. Many of you have stepped up to the call. We currently do not have any space to offer people who contact us for help- without any rooms, we cannot house anyone new. As a result, we've decided to wind the project down, unless/until we hear of available space for housing. If you know of any open rooms or apartments, please get in touch with us! We can help with some funding and we can provide a platform for crowdsourcing the rest. Email us!
OUR WORK (& others!)
We are incredibly proud of everything we've been able to accomplish over the last two years, and we couldn't have done it without your support. Since the inception of the Solidarity Room Project in 2019, we have been able to connect 8 people with housing in one of the most expensive cities in the country, financially support 4 of them for between 2-18 months, and provide or point them to various resources for food, clothing, medical care, and legal support.
We very much appreciate the financial support we've received from many of you and want to encourage you to continue supporting asylum seekers. Although Solidarity Room Project will stop accepting donations in February unless something changes, there are tons of other groups doing important asylum support work in or near NYC. Here are a few:
The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) assists folks coming out of immigration detention in securing structural, health/wellness, educational, legal, and emotional support and services. They work to organize around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQIA TS & GNC detainee/undocumented folks face related to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression/identity.
For The Gworls (FTG) is a collective that raises housing and medical funds for Black trans people.
The Refugee Translation Project provides free professional translation support to refugees seeking asylum in the New York metro area and beyond, particularly with important documents such as medical records, identity papers, personal statements, and other documents supporting their cases for asylum and relocation. They offer translations services in Arabic, Dari, French, German, Greek, Kurdish, Pashto, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Urdu.
Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) builds and centers the power of Black LGBTQIA+ migrants to ensure the liberation of all Black people through community-building, political education, creating access to direct services, and organizing across borders. They have several programs, including Deportation Defense where they directly engage with and support detained community members, organizing campaigns for their release and help to connect them with local support when they are released.
Asylum Support in Western Massachusetts is an organization who does work very similar to Solidarity Room Project, but in Western Mass. They offer a welcoming place to land and a network of broad-based accompaniment support, to help asylum-seekers operate from a place of increased safety and well-being while navigating their asylum processes.
New Sanctuary Coalition is a multi-faith immigrant-led organization that creates support systems for and empowers those navigating the immigration system. NSC’s grassroots programs are designed to shine a light on and disrupt the systems that criminalize immigrants’ existence. Core programs include the pro se immigration clinic, accompaniment, anti-detention, and community organizing and advocacy.
NEWS
Here is only a small sample of what we're hearing in the news every day about the ever-changing landscape of US asylum process, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resistance, and migration among people challenging borders in support of life.
A new law by the trump administration instructs judges and asylum officers to weigh negtivley on applications of migrants who have crossed through other countries with out first applying for asylum in those countries. It also instructs judges to deny claims based on domestic abuse and gang violence.
The same regulations which the DHS has called "streamlining" will now make it significantly harder for LGBTQ and HIV positive asylum seekers to win their cases according to Lambda Legal and immigration Equality.
Trump has finalized a controversial agreement to deport asylum seekers to El Salvador, one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas. With just weeks before Inauguration Day, Biden will have to decide whether to exit the agreement.
A pop-up 'sidewalk' school in Metamoros, Mexico is created and employs 20 asylum-seeking teachers who teach online classes in math, and reading/writing in English to Central American children who are also seeking asylum, while they wait in for entry into the US, despite the pandemic and a lack of resources.
500-600 Hurricane survivors in Honduras form a new caravan heading North towards US/Mexico border in search of relief of pre-existing poverty and likely famine, as two hurricanes (Eta and Iota) hit the drought-stricken 'Dry Corridor' region, destroying homes and crops just before harvest.
Tony Pham, controversial leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is set to resign at the end of December, after five months of holding the position.
Cameroonian asylum seekers continue to be deported at a much higher rate than non black asylum seekers. The deportations hand them military of the authoritative regime headed by President Paul Biya, where they face indefinite detention and possibly execution. Before they are deported many are submitted to medical neglect, exposure to COVID, forced sterilizations, beatings, abuse, and retaliation for protests.
A Mannahattan protest called in solidarity with ICE detainees who are on hunger strike to demand their freedom in Bergen County jail was attacked by a motorist who accelerated her car through the crowd sending 6 people to the hospital. the driver stayed on the scene but it is not known yet if she is in custody. The police arrested multiple protesters who chased after the vehicle and remained in the street after the attack. this is the second vehicle attack against anti racist protesters in Mannhattan this year.
Two of the detainees participation in the hunger strike at Bergen County jail have been transferred in what activists call a "clear act of retaliation"
At a demonstration on Saturday outside the Bergen county jail, police pepper sprayed and arrested several protests in a violent crackdown. earlier this week the words "Free Them All" appeared spray painted on the house of Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton
6 Covid cases are confirmed among ICE detainees at Dodge County Jail in WI. Law students at the University of Wisconsin Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic continue advocacy work with ICE detainees, holding monthly 'know your rights' trainings, Covid symptom check-ins, and medical history questionnaires while pushing for parole instead of incarceration.
A new book, "Authorized Crime" by Samuel Shmidt was just released detailing the mexican goverments complicity in many of the crimes committed against its citizens, undercutting the often made claim that immigrents fears are over exaggerated.
INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS DAY
Today, December 18th, 2020, marks the 20th anniversary of International Migrants Day, commemorating the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as acknowledging that migrants contribute their knowledge, networks, and skills to build stronger, more resilient communities wherever they live. Check out these videos produced by the UN International Organization for Migration. Or if you're more of a reader, dive into The Storyteller to learn more personalized accounts of all forms of human migration.
MULTIMEDIA
Here's a round-up of some other interesting links to check out during the holidays, curated by one of our volunteers.
Barrel Stories is a multi-year, multi-platform art project that creatively amplifies migrant voices around a little-discussed aspect of Caribbean culture – stepwise migration – where parents migrate ahead of their children who they temporarily leave behind in the care of others. On the website, you can find more info and access to a short film, an oral history archive, a virtual reality project, bespoke multi-media installations, and story sharing workshops
Here is a collection of migration case studies from particular countries, in order to get a better understanding of place-specific context and why people might be pursuing asylum from particular places.
New Sanctuary Academy's Popular Education Series is archived for you to watch past sessions. Save the date for their next live session, "Beyond Abolish ICE: Abolition in the Immigration Context" on Jan 12th, 2021.
The web-series “Through Our Eyes“ is a six-part documentary that attempts to show how refugee children see thier own situation, and restores the word of the witnesses of one of the most serious humanitarian crises of our time. The leading characters are seven refugee children between the ages of 11 and 16, telling their stories about the context in which they live, their personal daily struggles and their dreams as teenagers.
That's all for now! Stay in touch by signing up for email updates.
We smile to think of the day we can all see each other again in person. In the meantime, stay well!
The Solidarity Room Project team <3
Links to past newsletters: