This year, immigrant youth and families made the journey from Newark, N.J. to Washington, D.C., to tell Congress how immigration enforcement policies tear apart their families.

Detention and deportation have a particularly traumatic impact on the children whose parents and caregivers are taken from their community. Between 2010 and 2012, over 200,000 parents of U.S.-citizen children were deported, leaving tens of thousands of children without at least one of their parents. That’s why AFSC and immigrant allies in Newark are partnering to ask members of Congress to hear directly from immigrant families about the human impacts of detention and deportation.

Ask your members of Congress to be there to learn the consequences of immigration enforcement policies.

The Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center presents the stories of relocated Japanese Americans and Japanese Peruvians from United States incarceration camps; wartime refugees from Europe; migrant laborers from Appalachia, the Deep South and the Caribbean. Seabrook was an authentic “global bootstrap Village” where people of many cultures lived and worked together and still celebrate their heritage. Seabrook Farm was called the “largest vegetable factory on Earth” by Life Magazine in 1955, and it’s founder, Charles F. Seabrook, came to be known as the Henry Ford of Agriculture for his industrial approach to farming.

Do you have Seabrook memories? Visit the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center website to share your story.

​​​​​​Casa Marianella provides shelter, mind food and full supportive services to homeless immigrants. Two clusters of shelters in renovated houses in residential neighborhoods in East Austin serve women and children escaping violence and adult immigrants. Casa Marianella's shelters are home-like facilities designed to meet emergency or transitional needs so vulnerable and injured people can resolve their immediate crisis, get stabilized and once again become independent, which then opens up space for new residents. Casa Marianella's volunteer program is very flexible, permitting you to work the hours and days you select.

Volunteer Opportunities: Teach ESL, take a food shift (3 pm, every day), help with administration support, provide phone support by answering calls, refering calls to appropriate individuals, taking messages down, addressing resident and community needs, making copies, and performing general office duties. Additionally, volunteers can participate in Casa's bike project, house repair and maintenance, providing rides to immigration and/or doctor appointments, and donations assistance.

The historical ties between racism and the growth of mass incarceration in the United States are undeniable. Institutional racism throughout the various stages of the criminal justice system, including initial contact with law enforcement, have led to unequal and excessive incarceration of Black people for generations. Our mass incarceration crisis, fueled by racist policing and discriminatory criminal justice policies, continues to have devastating impacts on working class families and communities of color. Grassroots Leadership seeks to bring these issues to the forefront in Austin/Travis County in order to unite community groups and policy makers in urgent action to address these inequities.