I am forwarding the message below from Migrant Justice. It contains info about the Families Belong Together rallies happening nationwide and in various location in VT this Saturday, June 30th. The action in Burlington will be a march through downtown starting at the top of Church St. at 10am, and it will culminate with a rally in Battery Park, scheduled to finish at 12pm. The message below also contains information about a recent violent ICE arrest and detention of 25 yr. old Addison County migrant farm worker Alejandro Hernández Ventura, and a link to a petition to free him.
Sherry Pachman
___________________
We wrote to our supporters last week, asking you to rally with us at the Vermont State House, and people turned out in droves. Hundreds gathered to denounce the unconscionable policy of family separation and to decry the administration's equally punitive alternative of family detention. We stood united to say that the only solution is the recognition of migration as a human right and the decriminalization of immigrants.
Fourteen-year-old Raquel Mattos-Canedo electrified the crowd, declaring: "The moment we all sit back and wait for someone else to make a difference -- that's when history repeats itself. The time is now to take a stand, to rise up to history and change its course. Its up to us." Tragically, just one day before the rally, armed undercover ICE agents pulled 25-year-old farmworker Alejandro Hernández Ventura out of his car and arrested him in front of his wife. The couple had just left their home on an Addison County dairy farm when they were surrounded and Alejandro was violently detained. He is now being held in detention on $8,000 bond and is at risk of being deported.
Alejandro needs your help! Sign and share the petition to ICE calling for him to be released back to his wife and community! https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-ice-to-freealejandro?link_id=5&can_id=191faa81810[...]dro This latest outrage is a grim reminder that family separation is nothing new. Vermont farmworkers continue to be persecuted by ICE and Border Patrol; many have been deported, leaving spouses and children behind.
Yet as Raquel reminds us, we have the power to change history. Across the country people have been rising up, many taking direct action to shut down ICE facilities. And this weekend, more than 600,000 people are expected to take part in one of 700 actions planned for a national day of action.
This Saturday, find a rally near you! If you are in Vermont, there will be actions in Barre, Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Essex Junction, Manchester Center, Rutland, Williston, Woodstock. https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/#event-map
Despite the attacks on our community, we are still committed to the fight for justice and human rights. See you in the streets!
In solidarity, Migrant Justice https://migrantjustice.net/
Dec 23, 2024, 9 AM to 12 PM
Holiday Mass Schedule OLMC and St JudeDec 24, 4 PM to 10 AM, Dec 31, 2024
Friends (Quaker) Meetinghouse Christmas Day ServiceDec 25, 2024, 4 PM