Press Releases

Washington, DC – Ahmad Javed Momand was a doctor in Afghanistan. Now, he works as a lab tech, processing test results and taking employees’ temperatures at a U.S. health care facility. Both of his jobs are vital and important. But only one requires the time and skills involved in completing a PhD in medicine.  Dr. Momand’s ...

Black Africans Confront the U.S. Asylum System Washington, DC – On September 30, the last day of National African Immigrant Heritage Month, learn about the journey many Black Africans make to the U.S. to escape persecution–and the journey some are forced to make back via deportation.   WHO: Gladness, whose sister Josephine is facing deportation to Cameroon and ...

Listen to a recording of the press call here Silver Spring, MD – Last Thursday, ICE agents knowingly violated the agency’s Sensitive Locations policy and lied to Binsar Siahaan, an Indonesian asylum-seeker and six-year member of the Glenmont United Methodist Church, in order to arrest him and carry out his deportation.  In a clear violation of the ...

Faith leaders react to latest revelations of abuse in ICE detention, call on Congress to cut funding and stop these Trump administration acts Washington, DC – “It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies” – so said a woman detained at Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), recalling friends who ...

Washington, DC – A ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals puts the futures of people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) back in limbo, at the whims of an administration that has made no secret about its desire to deport them. “This is a dark day,” said Elissa Diaz, Policy Associate with Church World Service ...

Organizing for Immigrants, Refugees, Black Lives – True Justice for All Washington, DC – It was another brutal August in the United States–both due to heat and the general state of things–but people of faith continued to show up and organize for justice for all. Black lives, immigrants, refugees. Everyone.  This summer, we followed our call to ...

Washington, DC – President Trump is required to consult with Congress by the end of this month, before determining how many refugees to resettle in the United States in Fiscal Year 2021. Over the past three years, the Trump administration has failed to follow through on its consultation duty, and cut the number of refugees ...

Washington, DC – The Trump administration’s latest attack on asylum-seekers takes effect today: a one year ban on work permits. Elissa Diaz, Policy Associate at Church World Service and Co-Chair of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, said: Asylum seekers have already fled so much. Abused and persecuted in their native countries, often for years, they come to ...

Washington, DC – For years, the Krome immigration jail in Miami has been serving inedible food to Muslim people held there, including pork-based meals in violation of their religious beliefs. In a letter to various components within the Department of Homeland Security, Muslim Advocates, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and King & Spalding LLP wrote: During the ...

People Continue to Die Because of U.S. Border Militarization Washington, DC – Yesterday, as many of us read The New York Times Magazine feature, “How U.S. Policy Turned the Sonoran Desert into a Graveyard for Migrants,” Edwin Rodrigo was dying.  According to Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Edwin drowned ...