Immigration Resource Page

This page provides resources to get informed and take action on immigration injustices. The members of our Immigration Team, with support from our Social Mission Intern, recommend these resources as a starting point for those interested in understanding and advocating for immigration reform. We hope these will open the door to or further support you in your journey towards justice for migrants.

Get Informed

Books 

• The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu
• Jesus was a Migrant by Deidre Cornell
• Separated by the Border: A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child's 3,000-Mile Journey by Gena Thomas
• Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
• This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan

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News Updates

United We Dream
What you need to know on the new DHS memo ending DACA

• I thought we won at the Supreme Court! What happened? What does this mean for current DACA recipients?
• What does it mean for pending applications?

More info and graphics here

​Immigrants Rising DACA Updates -  More info here

Videos and Films

Living Undocumented - available on Netflix 

• Documentary series, investigates the diverse stories of migrants caught in the intricate U.S immigration system where uncertainty and pain often battle dreams.

Immigration Nation - available on Netflix 

• Documentary series, consists of footage filmed from 2017 to 2020 of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency's work during the Trump era. The documentary has been described by at least one film reviewer as "showing the inhumanity and unconscionable cruelty of [the] agency's tactics."

​Ted Talk - "What it's like to be a Child of Immigrants" - Michael Rain

• Click here  

Ted Talk - "Our immigration conversation is broken - here's how to have a better one" - Paul A. Kramer

• Click here

Prayer and Reflection Resources

• Share the Journey - Caritas
• Pope Francis’ Messages for World Days of Migrants and Refugees
• Jesuit Office of Justice and Ecology
• USCCB - Justice for Immigrants

A Franciscan Blessing
May God bless you with discomfort  at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you will live deep in your heart

May God bless you with anger, injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people in the earth so that you will work for justice, equity, and peace.
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May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer so you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy,

And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world so you will do things which others say cannot be done.

Amen.

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Take Action

Petitions

Take Action: Build Back the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program 

• The Administration is required by law to consult with Congress by September 30 before deciding the refugee admissions goal for Fiscal Year 2021. In the last three years, the Administration has cut refugee resettlement by more than 80 percent, from the historic average goal of 95,000 to just 18,000 - an all-time low.
• Urge the Administration to meaningfully consult with Congress and ask your policymakers to build back refugee admissions to the historic norm of 95,000. Welcoming refugees through the US refugee resettlement program reflects the best of our nation
• Sign the petition here

Stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Citizen Academies

• ICE is trying to make a Citizens Academy in order to have citizens trained in a myriad of ICE operations. This includes things like “defensive tactics, firearm familiarization, and targeted arrests.” ICE wants to roll out this program in September with plans to expand it to a nationwide practice in the future. This will put the lives of many immigrants and “suspected immigrants” at risk. Citizen vigilantism will make a dangerous future for the immigrant community. We need to take action against these unjust practices from being initiated.  
• Sign the petition here

Demand an End to Separating Families

• Homeland Security agencies, such as ICE and Border Patrol, are separating children from their parents at the border and sending them to faraway detention centers where inhumane conditions await them. These families are often asylum-seekers coming to the United States for safety and protection, but instead they face the reality of the situation: instead of receiving help and support, they are separated from their family members and labeled as criminals. 
• Sign the petition here

Close the Homestead Child Detention Center

• The U.S. government is currently holding over 2,000 child migrants, many of whom have been separated from their families by U.S. immigration officials. Most have fled violence and poverty in Central America and are seeking asylum in the United States. Instead of being released to family members or other sponsors, many are spending weeks or months in inhumane detention. And because Homestead is an emergency influx center, children are not protected by agreements that ordinarily ensure licensing and other standards are met. 
• ​Sign this petition here 

Stop ICE from Recruiting Hotels to Hold Detained Immigrants 

• ICE continues to raid communities with high immigrant populations in an effort to detain as many undocumented immigrants as possible. They had been holding immigrants in detention centers, but with ICE raids going at full force, their detention centers are overcrowded. So what does ICE plan to do to hold the people that they are detaining? ICE has been working with hotel chains to jail detained immigrants while detention centers are still overcrowded. Enough is enough! ICE’s detention of migrants is unjust and inhumane. It’s time to demand that U.S. hotel chains refuse to take part in letting ICE use their hotels as detention centers to jail immigrants. 
• ​Sign this petition here

Organizations We Support

 Local Organizations

• Catholic Charities - Su Casa Hispanic Center
• Casa de Paz/House of Peace
• Immigrant Dignity Coalition
• IJPC YES - Youth Educating Society
• Archdiocese Immigration Task Force
• LULAC Cincinnati
• Sanctuary Congregations Coalition of Cincinnati​

National and International Organizations

• Kino Border Initiative
• Batahola Norte Cultural Centre
• Familias Especiales: Santa Julia Billiart
• Cooperative for Education
• CRISPAZ
• Jesuit Refugee Services
• Jesuit Solidarity Across Borders 
• Ignatian Solidarity Network

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Send Letters to Representatives

These are letters you can copy and paste and build upon to email to Representatives and Senators.

Sen. Sherrod Brown
(513) 684-1021
​Sherrod Brown’s Email

Sen. Rob Portman
(513) 684-3265
​Rob Portman’s Email

​Contacting your Members of Congress to ensure the Trump Administration honors its legal obligation to meaningfully consult with Congress about this year's refugee admissions level before September 30th. Ask your Members to urge the Administration to build back the refugee resettlement program by setting the goal at the historic average of 95,000 refugees allowed to be admitted this year.

• Send your letter here from Catholic Social Action Office, United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), and Justice for Immigrants (JFI)

Demand the Senate pass permanent protections that help people without hurting people, like the Dream and Promise Act (HR6) and defund the Deportation Machine by reducing the budget for ICE and CBP by sending an email to your senator. 

• Vote in support of the Dream & Promise Act and stop giving more money to ICE and CBP.
• Send letter here homeishere.us/sendletter

Demand Trump includes immigrants in the next  COVID-19 relief packages

• Free COVID-19 testing, treatment, and services for ALL, regardless of immigration status.
• Cash assistance for all, regardless of immigration status
• Extended protections from deportation for DACA, TPS holders and other immigrants.
• Send letter here

Other

2020 Scholarship and Fellowship List for Undocumented Students

• Click here for list