Hi all,
We had one emergent AIW submitted. Please feel free to ask questions and share perspectives in this thread.
Excellent, thank you to all who worked on this. Another center to mention, though IDK if anyone is on hunger strike there, is Dilley in Texas, which was in the news not long ago because of all the children being held there.
Very glad to see this one!
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Hi, Sally!
There are definitely folks on hunger strike at Delaney Hall in New Jersey.
There are also hunger strikes at at least seven other immigrant detention centers.
Here is a letter from the hunger strikers at Delaney Hall:
Thanks, yes, I am well aware of the hunger and labor strikes at Delaney Hall; I am in Bergen County, N.J., and have visited a couple of times in April and May, before the N.J. State Police attacked the protestors. I’m hoping that we can get a group to visit on the 21st after GA concludes without triggering another police attack. We definitely need to pass this and support the people held in these concentration camps.
I believe I heard on WBAI that there was a fourth letter from Delaney Hall?
All of the letters are linked at the bottom of this page: Cosecha
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As someone near the lead organizers of this, who has spent time at Delaney, including the day Senator Kim was teargassed, we need to see evidence of relationship or partnership to support this.
Were the leaders here at Delaney consulted prior to submitting this? Some New Jersey leaders I have spoken to said this emerged without any contact, relationship, or the curiosity an outsider ought to use to discern what is happening, to know what the leaders would see as helpful. Without the avowed public support for this AIW from the actual leaders on the ground, we should not support this. Without such affirmation this risks “colonizing the narrative” - as tough as that may sound. I realize this could be an honest miss from a well-intentioned individual, but if those putting their lives and careers on the lines do not find this helpful we should vote No.
We should all wait to hear from those in Newark - those who know the situation, and who can tell us if this is helpful or not.
RS
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I am local, have visited Delaney Hall a few times, and I totally support this AIW. I am a bit concerned about the suggestion to visit without engaging those leading the on-site support, but I cannot imagine that a statement of support from the UUA could harm anything, nor could encouraging UUs to engage with groups such as Cosecha, DIRE, etc. I will e-mail Kathy O’Leary.
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Hello, Rev Scott,
I disagree with a lot of the points in your post.
I am the person who initiated this AIW. This is how it came about:
I heard that the brave people in detention at Delaney Hall were calling a hunger strike. So, I wanted to support those people who were in pain and being oppressed.
As someone new to UU, I heard about the chaos among protesters, police, government officials, and the wider community, and I thought that we, as a faith based organization, could share our love and solidarity.
The reason that there was not an immediate connection with my AIW proposal to people on the ground, is for the very reason that I was trying to reach out quickly, and to utilize our “last minute/past the usual deadline/emergency” AIW procedure to see if I – as a grassroots, new UU member – could start calling on our leadership and organization to make space for an event that would respect the people being detained.
Ultimately, the solidarity that my proposed AIW may inspire could happen a mile away from Delaney Hall, or three towns away from Delaney Hall. I did try to make many aspects of my proposal “vague” as “placeholders” for people to do the noble work you are discussing. My proposal only says “outside” Delaney Hall. So, that could be done in a park nearby, or a UU Meeting House in NJ. I am fine with that and it matches the words of the proposal.
Yes, people could check in with the people being detained (or be activists in relationship with the people being detained); and check in with local activists; and check in with UU groups doing this work already and with UU partners. Please, there is still time to do that work.
I did this checking in at some level, on a deadline, by seeking out some national groups that have partnered with the UU over the years, but they were not able to get back to me on the quick deadline. I was also in communication with someone from our The Commission on Social Witness (CSW). And, of course, I checked in with the friends in my local congregation.
As you may know, I also found out about the July 13th call for an event through Faith in Action, which is something that UU groups were already a part of. I did include the July 13th event in my proposal, so it could be more visible to UUers and to UU congregations through this AIW.
(Re: NJ Faith in Action…
Yes, by the June 7th proposal deadline, as a new UUer, I did not realize that I could directly list a website for a NJ chapter of Faith in Action. Though, I think that the proposal works the way it is, anyway, and of course, would lean on the wisdom of the group we happily have in NJ caring about this issue. I am also open to inserting the NJ link and/or contact person as a technical addition to my proposal. I truly just want us to make this wonderful statement and action in solidarity. And, the other day, through the AIW process, I did get into a communication circle with the NJ chapter of Faith in Action. So, something about my trying and announcing and networking helped.)
I would also like to note, that I posted a request for help and support on the UU discussion board on July 5th, hoping for on the ground support and more partnership by the June 7th deadline. People had a chance to steer the June 21st event, and people still have a chance to steer the June 21st event, because the AIW is written in a very open ended way, and if the AIW passes, it is no longer “mine/my proposal”, it will belong to the UUA and to our UU leaders, ministers, and members.
I guess you may know that the “colonizing the narrative” hurts. As I am white, I am sure I do have white privilege. Though, my heart was reaching out to the women and children inside Delaney as a child advocate to children, and as a mother to mothers.
Rev Scott, I hope that I can have your help to pass this proposal, and then to help me either work on making the June 21st event more specific and better, or, alternately, to help to see if there is a way to cut out the June 21st part and use the July 13th part and the other actions.
A lot of hard work from myself and others went into this proposal. And, this Delaney proposal as it is, was approved by the Commission on Social Witness, and also approved by some aspect of our UU legal process.
If the proposed AIW passes, it will not be “mine/my proposal” anymore. If it passes, it will belong to yourself, and to the NJ organizers, and to the people in detention, and to the UU GA. Then, all of those people and groups could use it to help struggle against the unjust detention centers, and use it to help make the lives of people in detention better.
Many thanks for your patience, and the patience of anyone else who has read this far.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Wilder
Long Island, NY
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Thanks, so much, Sally. The support, and the action to seek out more on the ground support, is much appreciated.
June 21st is still almost a week away. And, I hope that our outreach and connection expands quickly.
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Thanks to the thoughtful reply to Rev. Scott, Kimberly. I admit to some concern about my first impulse to carpool to Delaney Hall from Montclair, and would certainly want to get approval from PaxChristi, Cosecha, etc., but I also know that folks from UU Faith Action NJ have been involved in donating and I believe going to Delaney Hall, so we do have a UU connection of sorts already. In fact, my society, Central Unitarian, held a collection earlier in the year, collecting money for grocery gift cards as well as toys and food. Certainly, we should do nothing to endanger anyone, imprisoned individual, family, or activist.
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Visibility Brigade is having a Father’s Day Event at Delaney St. and my contact says there is no limit to how many people can attend, but we should sign up with her group so nobody gets lost. (She is a member of our congregation)
Hi friends, I deeply appreciate the passion and care that is behind this AIW. I know that it comes from a place of wanting solidarity and action, and to give UUs a vehicle to support on-the-ground organizers at Delaney Hall and the local community there.
I have to echo the concerns of Rev. Scott, though. It’s clear that relationships were not the starting point for this AIW, and we really must shift our culture away from “just do something” and toward “relationships and context first.” This AIW can and likely will cause additional work for the folks who are directly involved in supporting detainees, and our priority should always always be to respond to what is needed, not to presume what it might be and direct a large crowd to show up.
I will be voting NO on this AIW, because I am in solidarity with UU and partner orgs in the area of Delaney Hall. If we hear from local organizers and faith leaders that they specifically want UUs to take the actions outlined in this AIW, I’ll follow their lead.
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From the UU State Action Network of New Jersey:
This message is most relevant for individuals serving as Delegates for the UU General Assembly.
An Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) regarding Delany Hall has been introduced at General Assembly. This particular AIW, while reflective of a necessary call to witness, and developed with good intention, has an impact that perpetuates harm
- There is deeply coordinated work in process that has been circumvented. Actions not taken with this work in mind undermine the strategy.
- There are deep relationships that have been built over a long period of time, knitting communities of accountability into networks of solidarity. Action not taken with these relationships in mind undermine the relationships.
- There are suggestions made for action that do not take into account the needs of the people most affected by the actions - the people detained, their families, and the organizations upheld by communities at risk. Actions taken without these needs in mind undermine our accountability and values.
UU FaithAction NJ respectfully asks GA delegates to:
- Vote down this AIW
- Support a Responsive Resolution that shares actions and strategies in relationship with communities of accountability and in alignment with our values as UUs.
We will share the text of the Responsive Resolution once it is final. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
In faith, with love, and for justice,
Rev. Charles Loflin
Executive Director
charles@uufaithaction.org
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As another on-the-ground-in-NJ UU clergyperson, I’m concerned that this AIW–while made with every best intention clearly–isn’t actually in sync with the weeks of ongoing relationship building and esp strategic moves in an extremely volatile, sometimes dangerous struggle against the Trump/ICE/Republican anti-immigrant detention center at Delaney Hall , Newark NJ…5 miles from my house. This is a very important moment and we can engage where we live locally as well as–on July 17, more info TBA–to come if you wish to Delaney Hall to demonstrate our UU faith in action. But I would also ask you to vote this particular AIW down because simply arriving in such a complex environment could very well cause unintended consequences for the families of those detained, local stakeholders and everyone’s security. GREAT to have this kind of solidarity but let’s make our communal response as UUs truly useful and effective. Unfortunately this AIW won’t accomplish this. Rev. Rob Gregson, delegate, Beacon UU in Summit NJ
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Thanks Kimberly.
My voice is only one. Please know I do not impugn your character or motives in any way. But without the vocal support from the organizers here we cannot support this.
We will see how this goes … That is why we have votes …
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I would appreciate more information before moving this forward about how this AIW should be understood in relationship to (1) the 2025 AIW on the rights of Immigrants and (2) the current CSAI, which seem to already be making a clear position statement. Additionally, this is geographically specific, although I see that the proposer has acknowledged that there is a role for people outside of the Middle Atlantic area - how do people supporting this expect UUs in the Midwestern, Southwestern, or Western states to respond? I.E., why is this proposed to the UUA and not to a congregation or a region?
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Thank you to Kimberly for all the hard work you and many others did in elevating the attention of GA attendees to the injustices being borne by folks at the NJ dentition center in question. Thanks to Deborah and all the posters and respondents for uplifting the need to center the work of the folks directly harmed in coordination with the folks already in relationship with them. I will be voting against the AIW while anticipating a Responsive Resolution that will embody the spirit of solidarity the AIW seemed to reflect.
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Hello, to all interested in this topic.
I am not responding to any specific person, because I do not want to accidentally appear mean or disrespectful as I process my hurt and try to defend the work I did to pull this AIW together quickly, with outreach to my local congregation, the Commission on Social Witness, and anyone I could think of that I knew did justice work in New Jersey.
I would like to say that some of the arguments being made are imperfect.
- Yes, some actions are motivated first by direct relationships and connections to the people being harmed. Though, to be a faith organization seems to me to mean that one extends their compassion and desire to help to far away people. How did I connect to the people in detention? I saw their messages. I heard that they were on a Hunger Strike and wanted solidarity. That was my inspiration.
With that inspiration came my reaching out to see what I could do, and to think, “Where I did have any platform to help?” So, I wrote a timely and emergency AIW as a starting point to getting help from our faith organization to the local struggle. I would have expected that where I was naive, that our leaders, reverends, and organizations could help support and extend my idea.
- Since the filing and publishing of my AIW brought my idea to the attention of people who are on the ground – including some people who posted here – I have been totally invested in making things work, and adapting my AIW to their important explanations and suggestions about how it could affect people in detention if people sung and vigiled too close by.
The process of submitting timely AIW’s – which I can see needs to be updated – does not allow for me to amend my AIW once it is submitted. (And, that makes some sense, because the CSW reviewed and approved it for the agenda, and some of our legal team vetted it.)
Still, I told several people to think about the word “outside” of Delaney Hall as a very nonspecific term. That is a great fix to almost all of the concerns raised above. Outside could mean several blocks away. Outside could mean the Unitarian Meeting Hall several towns away but still in New Jersey. It has frustrated me that when I said this as a kind of concession and as a creative way to keep the lovely intention of a June 21st event, but not “get in the way”, I was not “met halfway” by the folks who said their objections were about proximity to Delaney Hall.
I am not sure about other folks here, though, I have seen people organize important protests in a few hours or a day. When Ruth Ginsburg died, people just knew to go to the Supreme Court and gather. Here on Long Island one of my friends who had never organized a demonstration collected a dozen folks on the steps of the courthouse the next day after the decision that ended Roe v. Wade. Instead of worrying our partners about what if this AIW interferes, and complaining on these message boards, the people close to the situation who care could be designing a sing-a- long at a park 5 miles from the detention hall.
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My main goal was to take all of the wonderful energy from our General Assembly – all the friends made, the lessons learned, the networking, and the actual music and song – and put that in a ball of beautiful energy that went straight from our closing service, to somewhere in New Jersey, where I know that a historical wrong is occurring, so that we could use our love and energy to pour positive vibes over the people in detention, the protesters, the families of people in detention, ICE, the police, and the government officials.
We could still do that.
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To the folks who asked why Delaney Hall? And, what if folks can’t make it.
I would leave that up to everyone’s choice. Of course this action does not demand that people travel to New Jersey. We are not that kind of religious organization.
People could get connected with folks in their area and see if there is already an event on June 21st to just join in.
Though, some of us, especially people nearby, like I am, in New York, may want to explore what we can do by putting our bodies and souls a little bit closer to the people whose suffering is so horrible, that it has to be covered by the news, so horrible that we see streams of many activists’ videos in our social media, and that we just can’t believe there is nothing we can do.
I hope that people will vote yes on this Delaney Hall AIW.
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Now, the boring part. I have studied the rules and checked in with the moderators. The by-laws specifically say that you cannot make a Responsive Resolution to an AIW. So, this strategy to vote “no” on the AIW before us, may take away our chance to leave all the other pieces of it in place. That would mean less publicity for the July 13th Faith in Action event that we all want and believe in and that our organization is already connected to through the NJ Faith in Action.
I also think that the CSW and/or the moderators have suggested that if this AIW passes, they are open to giving the folks on the ground, our UU organizations, etc. a chance to shape and publicize what the June 21st thing will be. Maybe it will be virtual?
I hope people will vote yes. And, then see if good events arise. And, if not, then vote it down tomorrow.
The whole idea of this proposal, the whole idea of an AIW, is to see if we can act fast to help an immediate need. Let’s try.
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This is NOT just about Delaney Hall, and it does NOT require a visit there. It does mention vigils outside all such concentration camps, and obviously there is more or less risk at any particular prison at any particular time. It mentions organizations that are directly on the ground at Delaney Hall, I have reached out to a leader, and there are issues with being too cautious that have been experienced on another issue in the recent past. A vigil could be held outside our own UU building; on an overpass as the Visibility Brigade does frequently (started right here in Paramus, N.J., about 30 miles from Newark). We at Central Unitarian have raised funds and supplies for families and advocates, as has our state advocacy network’s Immigration Task Force, which I believe has also had folks go to Delaney Hall.
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