Going Deeper on Immigration: Who Is My Neighbor?

Our workshop will be tailored specifically to the Gathering, but will take activities and reflection from the Who Is My Neighbor? A Faith Discussion on Immigration curriculum co written by Danielle Short. Each segment utilizes filmed interviews and actual facts and figures on immigration interspersed with reflection, interactive activities and discussion. The curriculum is scripture and faith based. This is an outstanding, professionally filmed with solid theology, piece that does not require extensive previous knowledge on the part of the participants. It helps us to bring into tension our role as a global citizens and our faith view point on this issue of immigration. Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbor. When asked, “Who is our neighbor?”, he responded with the parable of the good Samaritan making the outsider Samaritan the hero of the story. He basically was saying, “If you have to ask, ‘Who is my neighbor?’, then your neighborhood is too small.” For we who call ourselves people of faith, what ever stance we take on immigration issues, we must take our position through the faith filter, “Does this stance reflect my love of neighbor?”

The sessions are:
“We are all strangers in the land of Egypt”
“What does the Lord require of you?”
“Perfect love casts out fear”
The Good Samaritan: Who is my neighbor?”

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of patterns and causes of migration over time, and be able to place their own story with in it.
Participants will gain a deeper understanding of solidarity and allyship, understanding both privilege and responsibility.
Participants will feel equipped and inspired to take specific action in their home communities regarding immigrant justice.

Topic areas: Immigration history, storytelling, popular education, immigration policy (historically), solidarity, allyship, strategic action.
We will start with some reflection, use interactive exercise – including drawing or writing, followed by discussion in both small and large group, and end with some lecture and story sharing.
If folks could read Danielle Short’s piece, Seeing that of God in our Neighbors that would be great, though not required.
If folks could bring pictures of parents or grand parents, or any ancestor with a migration story, that would be great, though not required.

About the leaders :
Danielle Short received a B.A. in Peace and Global Studies and Spanish Language and Literature from Earlham College. She spent four years in Cuernavaca, Mexico, facilitating immersion retreats for North Americans to dialogue with Mexicans working for social, political and economic change. After returning to the U.S. she addressed the unfair treatment of undocumented immigrants as the Human Rights Program Director of the Colorado office of the American Friends Service Committee. During this time she staffed the Rights for All People (RAP) grassroots immigrant rights organizing project, facilitated numerous Know Your Rights trainings and helped transition RAP into a separate non-profit entity. She was a founding member of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) and developed and staffed an immigrant ally project, Coloradans for Immigrant Rights (CFIR). She worked with several interfaith efforts to advance immigration reform and directed the production of the “Who is My Neighbor? A Faith Conversation on Immigration” DVD curriculum. A member of Mountain View Friends Meeting in Denver, CO, she is the author of the Friends Journal article, “Seeing that of God in our neighbors,” which was also made into a pamphlet by AFSC. She is currently the Spanish Outreach Facilitator at the PEAK Parent Center, an organization that supports family members of children with special needs to advocate for them successfully in the educational system.

Jordan T. Garcia, 32, is the Immigrant Ally Organizing Director for Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, a project of the American Friends Service Committee. He serves on the board of directors for the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, and the grant making committee for the Queer Youth Fund. Jordan contributes to the LUZ Reproductive Justice Think Tank and is a Non Violent Direct Action trainer for the Ruckus Society. He believes that community organizing for systemic change can and will lead us to liberation. Jordan uses an anti-oppression lens to do leadership development in our movements for justice. Jordan was born in San Antonio, TX, grew up in Kansas City, KS and moved to Colorado in 1998. He graduated from Colorado College in 2002 with a B.A. in International Political Economy with an emphasis on Urban Studies. A sensitive Cancer, Jordan enjoys cooking with friends, riding his bike, planning for the post revolution industrial collapse and hopes to one day become a better bee farmer.