News and Alerts

UULMNJ Fall Issues Conference: Register Today!

by Rev. Rob Gregson

Registration is now OPEN for the Oct. 14 Fall Issues Conference–only 3 weeks away!

REGISTER NOW

The Legislative Ministry’s Fall Issues Conference takes place on Saturday Oct. 14 from 12 noon until 6 p.m.  Hosted this year by our member congregation, the UU Congregation of Monmouth County in Lincroft www.uucmc.org, the conference features a keynote speaker, issues-related break out groups and a working lunch.  The Lincroft congregation is active in antiracism and immigration justice work and we are very pleased to partner together in support of a more just and hopeful New Jersey.

For those new to UULMNJ, the Fall Issues Conference is the premier opportunity for UUs from across the Garden State to learn, discuss, and become involved in the most pressing social justice concerns facing our state.  It is the time each year when our six volunteer Task Forces (listed below) decide on their advocacy, education and legislative priorities for the coming year.  We work on a collaborative model, so make sure to come help shape the UULMNJ agenda and the outcome of long-term policy and culture change in our home state.

We are very pleased to welcome our 2017 keynote speaker, Johanna Calle.  Johanna is Program Director of our partner organization, the NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice, one of the most effective and vocal immigrant rights groups active in the state today www.njimmigrantjustice.org.

Ms. Calle will be joined by Rita Dentino, Executive Director of the Monmouth County immigrant rights organization, Casa Freehold www.casafreehold.org and a partner with the UU Congregation of Monmouth County.  Johanna and Rita will bring us up to date on the increasingly punitive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions and deportations and what we can do to mitigate harm and call out for justice on the public stage. Johanna and Rita expect to be joined by a NJ undocumented resident or family member willing to speak out about current conditions in our state.

Ted Fetter, long time Immigration Reform Task Force chair, will give an update on our State Sanctuary Challenge initiative–our 6 month-long effort to involve all 21 UULMNJ member congregations in advocating for sensible and human immigration reform locally, and against the mass criminalization of undocumented people.

Additional speakers during the break-out groups include Lena Smith from Food and Water Watch, Dr. Dione Johnson, CEO of JARC: Juvenile and Adult Re-Entry Connections, and Andrea Long, long-time reproductive rights activist and clinic escort.

As if that were not enough, there will be six break out groups during the working lunch to cover the issues we advocate for in Trenton and our member congregations: Environmental, Criminal, Reproductive, Economic and Immigrant Justice and Gun Violence Prevention.

Come also for the official launch of the NEW NAME, mission and vision statements, and special presentation of the logo and website design. Thanks to a generous donation, we are retooling to better serve justice-making, congregational liveliness, and “soul growth” in 2018 and beyond.

Finally, we sure to add your name and concerns/hopes/dreams to an interactive art installation, “Wall of Anger/Wall of Hope” over the course of the conference.

Questions/concerns?  Please email the UULMNJ office at admin@uulmnj.org.  We will make every effort to accommodate accessibility/special needs but it is very, very helpful to know in advance, so please do reach out.

Be sure to join us, 12 to 6 p.m. for a day devoted to justice-making and spirit-reviving.  See you there!

REGISTER NOW

We will make every effort to accommodate accessibility/special needs but it is very, very helpful to know in advance, so please do reach out.

Be sure to join us, 12 to 6 p.m. for a day devoted to justice-making and spirit-reviving.  See you there!

Have you signed the petition to abolish solitary confinement in NJ prisons, “In Defense of Human Dignity?”

by Rev. Rob Gregson

Click on the link below to go to the website of our coalition partner, the NJ Coalition to Abolish Isolated Confinement.  Many of you have visited the replica isolated confinement cell created by members of the UU Congregation at Montclair.  Far too many NJ prisons and jails use isolated confinement–for days, months, even years at a time–as a form of control.  We stand with many other faith and civic partners to call solitary what it is: immoral, unnecessary and unjust.

We will be working hard alongside our partners in NJ CAIC in 2018 to reintroduce the bill to end isolated confinement–the same one that passed resoundingly in the NJ Legislature this past year…only to be vetoed by Gov. Christie.

We aim to win this next go ’round–for the rights of all human beings, imprisoned but not without hope or human dignity and worth.  Please Sign!

NJ Coalition to Abolish Isolated Confinement Interfaith Petition

Article: “Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed”

by Rev. Rob Gregson

Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed

By Ijeoma Oluo 

Ed. remarks: This isn’t an easy article but it is a very smart one, and hits home for many but perhaps especially for those among us who recognize ourselves as “well meaning white liberals” (or “well meaning white conservatives/independents” though you are not mentioned very much in this article) who are beginning to see with greater clarity the pervasiveness of racism in American culture.  Spoiler alert: there is bad language here, and a perspective some may (will) find troubling. The editor’s take is that the UULMNJ was never meant to be another institution that comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted.  Or as one writer has said, “It’s not unity we are fighting for, but freedom.”  Worth reading. — Rev. Rob Gregson

https://theestablishment.co/welcome-to-the-anti-racism-movement-heres-what-you-ve-missed-711089cb7d34

Sanctuary/Fair and Welcoming Congregations: Rapid Response Teams

by Rev. Rob Gregson

How to Form a Rapid Response Team in Your Congregation

From An interview with Pedro Sosa, director of AFSC’s Project Voice Immigrant Rights Program in Oregon and Washington state
With thanks to Clara Haignere, editor
May 18th, 2017

https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/responding-to-immigration-enforcement-under-trump

Each team is made up of five smaller teams:

  • The legal team works with lawyers and does intake with people who are victims of raids. They are trained as legal observers, and they document any violations of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
  • The service team includes schools, social service agencies, faith groups, and others who help victims after raids. They provide food, accompany families to courts, help find care for the children if their parent or guardian is taken.
  • The media team alerts the news media when a raid happens, organizes press conferences, and distributes information about the rapid response team in the community.
  • The government team includes people who have connections with city officials or the governor or representatives. They lift up the stories of people affected to advocate for policies to prevent raids.
  • The political action team mobilizes people if we need to plan a march or rally to pressure elected officials.

24-hour Hotline with 15 volunteers taking turns answering the phone calls – two at a time. The calls are forwarded to their cell phones. If the first person can’t get to the call, the call goes to the backup person.

The idea is to record ICE activity in the community, and then we can mobilize the rapid response team if needed. Sometimes we get a call, and somebody needs help; other times, it’s just a rumor of ICE activity being reported.

We can get up to 15 calls a day. We spend a lot of time verifying rumors about ICE activities—we don’t want to put out bad information.

Q: Can you give us an example of how the rapid response team has successfully handled a raid?

A: In February, I got a call from Woodburn. The caller reported that they saw la migra (ICE) on the highway, and I called someone to verify that was true. I drove out to the scene and saw two vans had been stopped by ICE—workers who were [headed to pick ornamental shrubs in a nearby forest]. Nineteen workers were detained, and eight were arrested and sent to Tacoma detention facility.

We mobilized our rapid response team in Salem, which we had just developed a couple of months earlier. Within hours, we had a group of lawyers—including the ACLU and professors from Lewis and Clark University—come to talk with workers after they were released to document what happened and provide support. Most of the workers were released, although two were held, and lawyers began to help them and their families with their cases. We also alerted the media,  and the story was covered on local TV and in newspapers.

We originally developed the rapid response team model in 2006. Today, we have more technology. We use the SMS Seal app for messaging. We’re also in conversation with the ACLU, which has a phone app that lets you record and upload videos that get automatically sent to their system, just in case your phone is taken away from you.

 

What is the 287(g) policy and why is it bad for New Jersey (and the nation?) (RG May 2017)

by Rev. Rob Gregson

Thanks to Steve Ramshur and the Hudson Civic Action Group for this excellent discussion of the immigration policy–called “287(g)” in government speak–that pays counties to do the work of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency–by providing local jails and detention facilities.

287(g) is a totally voluntary program.  Hudson County is now one of only 41 counties in the entire country (out of 3,144) to sign–effectively putting greed for dollars before the necessary boundary between local law enforcement and national immigration policies.

In other words–now Hudson Co. taxpayers are now subsiding the increasingly harsh, arbitrary and wholly unnecessary pursuit of nonviolent, often long-established undocumented people.  Throwing many parents and hard-working people who have been here for 5, 10, 20 years into immigrant prisons.

Here is the link to the Hudson Civic Action article.  It’s an easy and good read–highly recommended.   http://hudsoncivicaction.org/287g/

Two Key Resources for NJ UUs Considering Sanctuary/Fair and Welcoming Actions

by Rev. Rob Gregson

The April 2017 Immigration Justice Task Force (IJTF) resolution supporting Unitarian Universalist opposition to increased ICE deportations/detentions under current Trump Administration executive orders Fair & Welcoming UU Resolution (June 2017)

A certificate program designed to inspire and encourage NJ congregations to organize locally to support the IJTF/UULMNJ resolution with direct actions to witness for immigration justice and reasonable, compassionate policy towards undocumented people in our state Fair and Welcoming UU Challenge (June 2017)

 

A Challenge to Our Congregations: Make NJ a Fair and Welcoming UU State!

by Rev. Rob Gregson

At the April 8 UULMNJ Plenary (Annual Meeting) held at the Ridgewood Unitarian Society, the Immigration Justice Task Force, in cooperation with the UULMNJ Board and Executive Director, publicized a Resolution of Support for Undocumented Persons Fair & Welcoming UU Resolution and a 7 month Challenge to NJ UU congregations to take action Fair and Welcoming UU Challenge.

Above are the links to the text of the Resolution and the Challenge to Act along with recommended action steps your community can take.

The proposal and the goal?  That every member UU congregation in New Jersey will take 3 out of the following 5+ actions to halt the misguided and overly harsh detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants in our state and across the nation.

For more information, please get in touch with either Rev. Rob Gregson at the UULMNJ office or Ted Fetter, Chair, Immigration Task Force (fetter4@verison.net)

Reproductive Justice: Interfaith Letter to Congress

by UU FA Office

View Interfaith Letter to Congress here: 2017426FaithGroupsforPPFINALLetter

Information provided by Carol Loscalzo, Reproductive Justice Task Force Chair

Additional note from Glenn Northern, Domestic Program Senior Associate, Catholics for Choice:

The final interfaith letter that is being sent to Congress tomorrow morning.  The faith community came out in force.  Thank you very much. We are proud to stand together with you.   More than 60 national, state and local organizations signed onto the letter demonstrating their support for Planned Parenthood.  That might be the new reproductive health interfaith letter record!

Catholics for Choice is going to amplify very publicly that faith support as well as our own support for Planned Parenthood and we would encourage others to amplify our joint efforts as well.   As part of our amplification we will be using social media.  First thing tomorrow morning I will send a toolkit  that contains various resource that we are happy to share including our branded material.  If folks have capacity to use any of this material or need additional material please be in contact.  In the meantime, we would love to have the letter shared with your networks, websites etc. Thanks once again for all the work you do around these important issues.

 

Rev. Rob Gregson with former NJ Governor Jim Florio and UULMNJ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force chair, Jeannine Coyne

by UU FA Office

Honored to speak with former NJ Governor Jim Florio and UULMNJ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force chair, Jeannine Coyne at the UU Congregation of Cherry Hill on halting gun violence in our country. Gov. Florio was instrumental during his term at banning military style assault rifles in the Garden State–for which he deservedly got a standing ovation from the congregation. — at Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill. Sunday April 2nd, 2017

SUMMARY OF UULMNJ CONFERENCE AT UUCP FEBRUARY 26, 2017

by UU FA Office

SUMMARY OF
UULMNJ CONFERENCE AT UUCP
FEBRUARY 26, 2017

Overview:
Seventy-eight (78) people signed in and probably more participated without signing in. There were eleven tables of six or seven people and a few people sitting in chairs on the side.

Rev. Rob Gregson, the Director of UULMNJ, provided an inspirational overview of the six (6) UULMNJ Task Forces (in alphabetical order):
1. Criminal Justice Reform
2. Economic Justice
3. Environmental Protection
4. Gun Violence Prevention
5. Immigration Reform
6. Reproductive Justice

He mentioned that UULMNJ also provides direct resources to congregations and our coalition allies in the areas of Local Policing/Black Lives Matter Congregational Toolkits. This project is aimed at education local law enforcement and correctional communities about antiracist, violence-and bias reduction agenda.

He also discussed UULMNJ Legal Advocacy Project (LAP) to move legislation that reflects UU values through NJ Legislature such as the current bills to support confidentiality for women’s reproductive health care workers and clinicians. Another legislative effort from the Environmental task force is efforts to move through the Senate S-1707, the Renewable Energy Transition Act (RETA). RETA would by year 2050, require 80% of all electricity generated in the NJ to be from renewable energy sources: solar, wind, and methane gas from landfills.

Another newer initiative from the Immigration Reform Task Force is Sanctuary Congregations/cities project to educate UUs and allies to respond to harsh regulations on undocumented immigrants in NJ.

Purpose of the Conference:
The purpose of the conference was to solicit UUCP congregants’ ideas on the question: “In the age of Trump, what actions do you most want UULMNJ Task Forces to be prepared to take?” Clara S. Haignere helped direct this effort. Each of the participants was instructed to write down their ideas in response to this question on a 4X6 card without discussing it with others. Then each small group made a master list from their table’s ideas and selected the one action they designated as was most important and wrote that action area on one of the three white boards.