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Immigrant Justice

• OCAD – “OCAD stands for Organized Communities Against Deportations. We’re a group of undocumented, unapologetic, and unafraid organizers building a resistance movement against deportations and the criminalization of immigrants and people of color in Chicago and surrounding areas.”

• Grassroots Leadership – “Grassroots Leadership works for a more just society where prison profiteering, mass incarceration, deportation, and criminalization are things of the past.”

• Mijente – “We are a political home for Latinx and Chicanx people who seek racial, economic, gender and climate justice.”

• Detention Watch Network is a national membership organization that brings together advocates from diverse backgrounds to unify strategy, build partnerships and strengthen the movement to end immigration detention.

• Undocublack – “A network fighting to create space for currently and formerly undocumented Black immigrants to not only survive but thrive.”

• BAJI – “BAJI was formed to bring Black voices together to advocate for equality and justice in our laws and our communities.”

• New Sanctuary Coalition – “Founded in 2007, New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC) is a multi-faith immigrant-led organization that creates support systems for and empowers those navigating the immigration system.”

• United We Dream – “We empower people to develop their leadership, their organizing skills, and to develop our own campaigns to fight for justice and dignity for immigrants and all people.”

• Freedom to Thrive – “We are building a future free of criminalization, free to thrive.”

• No More Deaths – “The mission of No More Deaths is to end death and suffering in the Mexico–US borderlands through civil initiative: people of conscience working openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights.”

How do I talk to people who support bans, walls, and raids? (I often think of this question as, “how do I talk to Uncle Fred about immigration?”)

• People’s Action — People’s Action is a national network of grassroots organizations working to build power and solidarity among working-class people from all backgrounds. They have innovated the strategy of deep canvassing involving deep empathy and listening to speak to people who live in rural areas about immigration. Deep canvassing has proven to shift people’s view of immigration over the long term. 

How can I use my research skills and access to university resources to do abolitionist sanctuary work?

• Erase the Database  – “Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), and Mijente have been leading a local campaign urging the city of Chicago expand what it means to be a “Sanctuary City” to protect immigrants and US-born people of color, particularly those who are targeted by local police. Exposing and eliminating the gang database has jumped to the top of the agenda this week after it became clear that Mr. Catalan-Ramirez’s targeting by ICE was in part a responsibility of the Chicago police.”

Abolition

• Project NIA – Project Nia works to end the incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices.

• BYP100 – “Founded in 2013, BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100) is a member-based organization of Black youth activists creating justice and freedom for all Black people.”

• Assata’s Daughters – “AD is an abolitionist organization led by Black women using a Black queer feminist lens and relationship-based tactics to organize bases of young Black people in divested-from areas of Chicago.”

• Movement for Black Lives – “The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.”

• Critical Resistance – “Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe.”

• MASK –  “MASK (Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings) was established in 2015 as a way to put eyes on the streets, interrupt violence and crime, and teach children to grow up as friends rather than enemies. A group of caring individuals in the community began to simply hang out on the block, cook food, and emanate love.”

• The Abolitionist Map — “Are you looking for opportunities to join abolitionist groups in your community? Explore our Abolitionist Map below to find an organizing hub where you live! Click on the pink stars to find state-specific groups and the blue stars to find national groups in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.”

Imperialism 

• Dissenters  – “Dissenters is leading a new generation of young people to reclaim our resources from the war industry, reinvest in life-giving services, and repair collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world.”

• Arabs for Black Power – “#Arabs4BlackPower is a group of artists, academics, mothers, fathers, students, refugees, and community organizers with ties to Arabic-speaking regions, declare our unwavering solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). … For liberation to be real and genuine, we all need to get free.”

• Black for Palestine – “Black4Palestine is an emerging national network of Black activists committed to supporting the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, peace and self-determination. We seek to integrate our work around Palestine into the global and domestic struggles for Black liberation and human emancipation.”

• Red Nation – “The Red Nation is dedicated to the liberation of Native peoples from capitalism and colonialism. We center Native political agendas and struggles through direct action, advocacy, mobilization, and education.”

• National Congress of American Indians – “The National Congress of American Indians, founded in 1944, is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.”

• #NoDAPL Archive – This website archives resources and documents related to the resistance movement against the North Dakota Access Pipeline led by Indigenous water and land protectors. 

• Idle No More — Idle No More started in November 2012, among Treaty People in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta protesting the Canadian government’s dismantling of environmental protection laws, endangering First Nations who live on the land. Born out of face-to-face organizing and popular education, but fluent in social media and new technologies, Idle No More has connected the most remote reserves to each other, to urbanized Indigenous people, and to the non-Indigenous population.