Know Your Rights, Share Your Knowledge

“Our response to the arrival of migrating persons can be summarized by four words: 
welcome, protect, promote and integrate.” - Pope Francis

Today, this response to a migrating person –  welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating them into the United States –  also needs to include migrants who may have been here for years or even decades. One way to offer protection is to share information about certain rights and protections that all people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have under the Constitution. That's where red cards come in. Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s (ILRC) red cards give examples of how people can exercise these rights, for instance when interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other law enforcement agencies. 

While you may feel that your own immigration status is secure, you may know individuals for whom this information would be helpful, or may want one yourself. Red cards (both in Spanish/English and English/Chinese) will be available to all parishioners at Sunday Hospitality, beginning September 7. We encourage you to take as many as you can distribute to potentially-impacted individuals. If you need these red cards in another language, you can download and print them from ilrc.org. Check in with a trusted legal service provider for questions about your specific situation.

The "Know Your Rights cards" have the following information on them:

Photo (top): The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its annual instinctive migration from the northern US and southern Canada to Florida and Mexico. Monarch butterfly male on Tithonia flower in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Wikimedia / Rhododendrites (cc)