Author: Eleanore Ablan-Owen

Please consider taking action in this urgent campaign. Instructions here.

The current COVID-19 crisis is posing a particular danger to immigrant detainees in ICE detention centers and in local jails on contract with ICE nationwide, where the effective preventative measure of social distancing is non-existent. An open letter signed by over 3,000 medical professionals has been addressed to ICE to that effect. A COVID-19 outbreak in these facilities will create a health crisis for the detainees, staff, and surrounding communities.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan’s prison population has doubled in late March 2020. In New York, three migrant children in government custody have tested positive for COVID-19. The federal court also ordered the release of a number of immigrant detainees in California and New Jersey.

Efforts have recently been galvanized across the country to seek the release of immigrant detainees. ICPJ is sponsoring a statewide letter-writing campaign toward that goal.

Please considering asking the Ann Arbor City Council to take two actions:
1) Approve the new A2Zero Carbon Neutrality Plan

2) Approve the first-year budget to implement that Plan

These issues will be discussed at virtual City Council meetings now scheduled for April 20, May 6, and May 20. Here is the plan itself, the slide presentation, Missy Stults’ videotaped presentation to Council, and the M-Live article about it.

Typically there would be opportunities for members of the public to formally address the Council during those meetings. With the shelter-in-place order, the best ways to communicate with Mayor Taylor and City Council are through petition, email, phone, and social media.

1. Please sign and circulate this petition as widely as possible. The petition is being circulated by the Ann Arbor Climate Partnership, a coalition of environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, the Ecology Center, the Huron River Watershed Council, and Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice. We would like to have hundreds of signers on it to share with City Council as early as April 20, and no later than May 20.

2. Please contact City Council members and the Mayor to express your support for the plan and related budget and to stress the importance of this plan, even during the COVID-19 emergency. If you live in Ann Arbor find email addresses and phone numbers for your Councilpersons at https://www.a2gov.org/departments/city-council/pages/home.aspx. If you don’t live in A2, you can still contact Council and the Mayor at CityCouncil@a2gov.org. Greenhouse gases don’t recognize city borders, and other communities are affected by the action or lack of action that Ann Arbor takes. For more information, contact Jan Wright (janwrigh@umich.edu)

*There is a new process to publically speak to City Council by phone. As with the usual process, you must call right at 8:00 a.m. on the day of the council meeting to get one of the ten allotted spots. More information about public participation in virtual meetings here.

More Information about the Draft Plan:

This will not be easy. Some of the plan can be done by the City but much of it will require help from individuals (such as us!) and groups (such as ones we are a part of!) as well as changes in state legislation (which we will need to lobby for). We will continue to communicate with you about ways you can be part of these efforts.

Key Elements of the Draft Plan:

• Power our electrical grid with 100% clean and renewable sources of energy
• Switch appliances and vehicles from gasoline, diesel, propane, and natural gas to electric
• Significantly improving the energy efficiency of homes, businesses, schools, places of worship, government buildings, and recreational sites
• Reduce the miles we travel in our vehicles by at least 50%
• Significantly change the way we use, reuse, and dispose of materials
• Enhancing resilience

Suggested Talking Points in addressing Council:

• Thank you for voting last year to make Ann Arbor “carbon neutral” by 2030 — a timeframe consistent with what scientists have told us needs to be done.
• But a goal is not enough. Ann Arbor needs a plan and adequate resources to get us there.
• The climate crisis demands urgent action, and “business-as-usual” will not do the job.
• Discuss one area of climate action that is especially important to you personally.
• The City’s draft carbon neutrality plan is extremely ambitious, but it is also do-able, and it meets the scale of the challenge.
• It will take leadership from every one of us to make Ann Arbor carbon neutral, and to rise up and solve the climate crisis. We look to you to be a leader in your Ward and engage your constituents about it.
• Please vote YES to approve the City’s carbon neutrality plan. And please vote YES to fully resource the City’s climate work.

This is a living document that grew out of the passions of our network.

We are an interfaith and intergenerational collaborative network of individuals and organizations who share values of peace and justice. We continually strive to be more multi-racial and intersectional so we can all be our authentic selves. In pursuit of building this space together, we center anti-racism as well as the perspectives of feminism, anti-classism, and spirituality in its multiple forms.

While our network is diverse in our focus areas, lived experiences, and ways of doing the work, we share values that bind us together. We believe our actions show our values so we practice radical love in all we do. We aim to change structural systems by focusing on the interconnected root causes that continue the status quo. This means recognizing the self-determination of all peoples and the interdependence of all species. This means working to eradicate inequity in the large and small ways while being mindful of our collective and individual impact.

We will listen more, advocate for human rights, empower people to create their own change, proactively share our resources, and act with intention and humility. As we dismantle white supremacy and other oppressive power systems, we will show care for one another. As we reform the whole justice system, we will respect and value others. As we oppose military repression, occupation, and exploitation, we will respect our ecosystem.

We invite you to join us in these practices so we may achieve peace and justice for all:

• Reject systematic poverty and violence
• Invite the most impacted to help guide our work
• Build a system of equity
• Learn about the power structure
• Practice physical and emotional nonviolence
• Seek common ground for dialogue and understanding
• Recognize your privilege and how you are accountable to others
• Encourage multiple strategies in alignment with one another
• Promote truth & reconciliation with empathy for yourself and others
• Act locally too!

Collaborative Action Campaigns

As we deepen our network and prioritize the needs in our community that we are well-situated to respond to, these five campaign areas are ready to launch in 2020! Our projects are emergent and generative and we will develop and share clear goals so we can measure our progress. 

Housing is a Human Right

We are collaborating with Legal Services of South Central Michigan (LSSCM) to pilot a series of tenant’s organizing meetings modeled after work being done at City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston. We are focused on building community power to insure housing for all no matter the income and to providing access to relevant community resources. 

Local Climate Crisis Actions

We are part of a coalition working to draft Ann Arbor’s carbon neutrality plan. We are focused on centering equity and our impact on surrounding areas. We will also advocate for accountability throughout the process as we mobilize our network to address the climate crisis. 

Youth as Cultural & Civic Leaders

ICPJ, Youth Arts Alliance, the Dispute Resolution Center, and the Michigan Juvenile Justice Youth Advisory Board are joining together to add capacity in areas of restorative justice, cultural healing and loving spaces, and civic and community action with partner youth-serving organizations and groups. We will use intergenerational support and organizing practices and focus on issues of juvenile justice, anti-gentrification, and climate change.

Community Power & Practicing Democracy

In partnership with community advocates and local organizations, we will identify communities most disenfranchised by inequitable policies using social determinants of health and voting behavior in order to launch a grassroots empowerment and education campaign focused on building community power for low-income and racially-marginalized people.

Justice & Safety for Immigrants & Asylum Seekers

We will join Movimiento Cosecha Ann Arbor in its Driver’s Licences for All campaign and help organize allies to work in coordination with their efforts. We will also build capacity for the new Network to Support Asylum Seekers that formed to fill a gap in services. 

The 2019 ICPJ Spring/Summer Newsletter is available for download. Check it out for updates on Immigration Justice, Affordable Housing, Youth Arts Alliance, Colombia Peace Accords, Delegation to Honduras, and more.

We are calling on the ICPJ community to take a moment to send letters to your representatives to support asylum for Emilio and Oscar Gutiérrez Soto, members of the Ann Arbor community. We have made it easy – follow this link, enter your information, modify the suggested letter if you like, click, and send the letter(s).

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto is a Mexican investigative journalist who exposed military corruption in Mexico. Since then Emilio and his son, Oscar Gutiérrez Soto, had to flee to the US due to the active and imminent death threats targeted against them. They have been living in the US for ten years, always abiding by immigration regulations. Despite their compliance and strong case for asylum, their asylum petition has been denied.

Emilio and Oscar Gutiérrez Soto have become an important part of our community in Michigan. Help us support their efforts to seek asylum in the US and prevent them from being deported to Mexico, one of today’s deadliest countries for journalists. Please reach out to your representatives and speak up for Emilio and Oscar through the letter campaign.

See more information: https://www.michigandaily.com/section/government/dingell-upton-urge-halt-deportation-knight-wallace-fellow-emilio-gutierrez-soto