March 1, 2010

NEW YORK – Drawing on nearly 65 years of direct service to and advocacy work for refugees, immigrants and other marginalized communities, Church World Service is ramping up its efforts for immigration reform, with components including direct service work, advocacy and grassroots mobilization.

CWS (www.churchworldervice.org), a global humanitarian emergency response, sustainable development and refugee protection agency, is advocating for reform that keeps families together and enables undocumented immigrants to earn their legal status and eventual citizenship.

Building on their work in grassroots communities and the burgeoning call for immigration reform, Church World Service and other faith-based organizations are gearing up to bring tens of thousands of people of faith to Washington, D.C., on March 21 for a 2 p.m. National Mall rally for immigration reform, March for America: Change Takes Courage and Faith (http://changetakesfaith.org/). The Rev. John L. McCullough, Church World Service Executive Director and CEO, will be among speakers. The March for America coincides with an annual gathering of people of faith, Ecumenical Advocacy Days (http://advocacydays.org/), set for March 19-22 and focused on immigration this year.

CWS participation in the March for America and Ecumenical Advocacy Days is undergirded by the agency's ongoing direct service to immigrants. Seventeen of Church World Service's 33 local refugee and immigrant services offices and affiliates provide immigration legal assistance to thousands of clients each year, and CWS offices and affiliates in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Pennsylvania are providing material and social care to medical evacuees from earthquake-battered Haiti (http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8761&news_iv_ctrl=1361).

CWS offices and affiliates located near Haitian populations are assisting Haitians who want to apply for Temporary Protected Status, extended by the U.S. government shortly after the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. TPS allows grantees to live and work in the United States legally, albeit temporarily, and thus contribute toward relief and reconstruction in Haiti.

In addition, CWS scheduled special "Service Speaks: Days of Action for TPS" http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8745&news_iv_ctrl=1361 and Citizenship Drives in Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia and Connecticut in mid-February and early March to point to the need for lasting solutions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lhN70i1YmU) through comprehensive immigration reform.

The Service Speaks: Days of Action for TPS are also among nearly 100 events happening across the country throughout February and into March as part of "Together, Not Torn: Families Can't Wait for Immigration Reform," a nationwide mobilization of people of faith standing up for families who are being torn apart by this country's broken system and immigration reform that keeps them together. "Together, not Torn" also includes the delivery of hundreds of thousands of pro-reform postcards to members of Congress.

Church World Service has also hired field staff in Minnesota, Ohio, and South Carolina and a national grassroots coordinator to mobilize people of faith in states that are key to the legislative future of reform. These organizers will connect direct immigration service providers, clergy and members of congregations of CWS member communions, and other ecumenical, interfaith and secular CWS partners in their advocacy for fair, humane immigration reform.

"We are calling for reform now because our nation's broken immigration system is causing millions of people to suffer," said the Rev. McCullough. "Every day, our agency helps immigrants frustrated at how long it takes to be reunited with family members. We witness whole communities living in fear of indiscriminate raids or arrest by local police. And we see parents who risk their lives to seek work here rather than watch their children die of starvation. They ensure their children's survival back home, but miss seeing them grow up."

Church World Service