Love is how we win.
This winter has been harrowing for immigrant communities throughout the U.S.: a rash of anti-immigrant executive orders; the end of humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of individual Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans followed by a reversal of Biden’s extension of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitians and Venezualans; and ICE aggression, to name a few.
These are policies designed to terrorize, criminalize and rip communities apart. We know that love for our neighbors is the antidote, and you have been an integral part of counteracting hate by embracing our immigrant communities.
Despite the Trump administration’s threat to deport millions of people swiftly and mercilessly, Proyecto Faro and other grassroots community-driven organizations like ours throughout the U.S. are successfully fighting back. By working together as communities to protect our immigrant neighbors—from a place of love, compassion and adherence to principles of dignity and human rights—ICE is not close to meeting its maximalist goals. Instead of detaining and deporting millions, they have only been able to target thousands.
Part of spreading love and safeguarding the dignity and human rights of all includes educating the community on their rights—rights to which everyone in the U.S. is guaranteed under the law, regardless of immigration status.
This spring newsletter highlights how Proyecto Faro is spreading the love and providing opportunities for immigrants in Rockland to empower themselves and fight for their rights, dignity and their rightful place in our community. Together we are fighting for our lives and we intend to succeed.
Finally, with the coming of spring, Proyecto Faro is launching a season of giving called Grow the Love. In order to meet the urgency of these times, we have already expanded our programs in 2025 to increase the impact and reach of our work. It is paying off, but we need your help to raise the funds needed to continue to scale up our work this year.
To read more about our work protecting and power-building in immigrant communities and how you can help Grow the Love through this fundraising campaign please read on!
NEWS & UPDATES
1. How PF is fighting back & protecting immigrants: Building infrastructure for community defense & protection
The moment the election was called in November, we jumped into action. We knew from the last Trump administration that immigrant communities’ first line of defense would be learning their rights so they could assert them if confronted by ICE. We also wanted families to have a safety plan in case any member of their family was detained or deported. Finally, we sought to build a community line of defense consisting of allies and immigrants not under threat ready to aid targeted by ICE. Over the past 4 months, we’ve:
- Conducted 15 Know Your Rights (KYR) trainings: With our pro bono attorneys from partner Center for Safety & Change, we customized New York Immigration Coalition’s in-depth curriculum. We have conducted 23 trainings, giving 300 immigrants and 460 allies vital information about the rights of undocumented immigrants if stopped by ICE. We’ve trained 15 number of KYR trainers, creating a pool of people who can in turn train as many Rockland individuals and families as possible, as well as training teachers and administrators in the East Ramapo and North Rockland Districts.
Co-Exec. Director Dilcia Suazo & Center for Safety & Change partner attorney Andrea Panjwani conduct KYR training for allies. - Distributed thousands of “red cards” in Spanish and Haitian Creole, to the community, with huge help from volunteers: Created by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, these wallet-sized cards succinctly inform immigrants of their rights and how to exercise them. They have a side in English that can be presented to ICE agents. You can download red cards here and print them to hand out in your community.
- Recruited for, planned, and launched a Rapid Response Network: These networks are community-driven mechanisms for quickly responding to an ICE enforcement action in real time. KYR-trained allies are linked through a texting app and we have a hotline people can call if they see or are experiencing an encounter with ICE. The location and legitimacy of the encounter is verified and volunteers nearby are dispatched to the site. The volunteers identify themselves to the immigrant, document the encounter and, by supporting the targeted person to assert their rights and pressing the agent for the required but seldom possessed document– a signed judicial warrant–attempt to thwart an arrest. If an arrest takes place, they get basic information from the person, reach out to and give the person’s name and birthday to a deportation defense attorney, notify their key contact person, and connect them with Proyecto Faro who can provide emotional and material support to family members during the individual’s detention. We invite you to join the network! If you are interested, please email info@proyecytofarorockland.org.
- Organized and launched a new PF coalition, the Multifaith Immigrant Defense Coalition: In January we began convening an interfaith group of 80 people representing 35 congregations across religions and denominations to begin discussing the unique and powerful role faith communities can play right now in defending our immigrant community members. We are focusing these efforts through four working groups: Action/Advocacy, Accompaniment and Solidarity, Rapid Response, and Sanctuary. Support of vulnerable people, compassion, and a commitment to justice are common threads running through and tying together all faiths and we believe the moral leadership our faithful friends will demonstrate in the coming period will provide valuable guidance, strengthen community bonds, and generate hope and wisdom for the work ahead.
PF staff & board welcomed 80 people for the launch of a Multifaith Immigrant Defense Coalition on January 23
2. Expanding our program capacity through the integration of new volunteers
The community at large is also showing their love for and dedication to helping immigrants by offering their volunteer support. Since November, PF has seen an outpouring from people eager to volunteer in our programs. This is showing the immigrant community how much Rocklanders care about them. Immigrants themselves continue to become involved in PF’s work.
We are in the process of creating a volunteer management system. If you signed up but have not yet heard from us, we will be in touch very soon. If you have not yet signed up but would like to volunteer, please contact info@proyectofarorockland.org.
3. Building our organizing capacity
PF’s Luisa Izaguirre accepted into NY Immigration Coalition’s Training Institute
We are very proud that Luisa Izaguirre, PF’s Community Representative, has been selected by the NY Immigration Coalition (NYIC) to attend their Organizing Institute this year. Luisa has not only begun attending a series of trainings to deepen her organizing and leadership skills, but she will use her newly acquired knowledge to contribute to the Campaign for Access, Representation, and Equity (CARE) for Immigrant Families (CARE4IF). By spearheading organizing in Rockland County, Luisa will help bring Rockland voices to this State campaign.
PF’s Community Representative Luisa Izaguirre
CARE4IF was launched by a large coalition of elected officials, advocacy organizations, and impacted families to advocate for the passage of the Access to Representation Act in the New York State Legislature (S999A/A170A). “The legislation would be the first in the nation to create a statewide right to a lawyer for people facing deportation who cannot afford representation, whether they have recently arrived in the state or have been New Yorkers for decades,” explains the CARE4IF coalition, of which PF is now an active member thanks to Luisa’s leadership.
On March 11, PF’s Maria Gonzalez & Luisa Izaguirre advocated for a slate of pro-immigrant policies, including CARE4IF, in Albany with NYIC.
How YOU can get involved in CARE4IF in Albany on Monday, March 24! Join the coalition advocating for the Access to Representation Act in Albany for CARE4IF lobby day von March 24. Click here for details about the goals of this lobby day and directions on how to register to attend.
Expanding our team to include a full-time community organizer
Thanks to the generosity of a family foundation we are working with, we are able to hire a full-time organizer to work hand-in-hand with Luisa and our parent leaders on our educational justice campaign for East Ramapo public school children (see more about this campaign below).
4. Educational justice campaign for East Ramapo public school children updates
Working closely with NYCLU and Las Mejores Huellas de los Inmigrantes, PF supported our parent leadership group, Organización de padres empoderados/Empowered Parents (OPE), to continue to meet regularly with elected officials to build support for the reintroduction of State legislation that would impose accountability for and financial oversight of the ERCSD school board.
Last year just before his retirement, Assembly Member Ken Zebrowski proposed a bill (A10407), designed to impose State oversight to ensure that the school board would not continue mismanaging the ERCSD budget and destroying its public school system. This was following months of advocacy by OPE leaders in collaboration with NYCLU and the coalition for educational justice for East Ramapo public school children. While A10407 did not gain traction last legislative session, it created tremendous momentum for our coalition to redouble our efforts this year.
In the months following the close of the 2024 legislative session, OPE, NYCLU, and coalition members continued to meet regularly with elected officials throughout NY State. This work paid off: the coalition succeeded in finding sponsors from the Assembly and the Senate who have agreed to introduce a bill similar to A10407 in the Assembly and Senate this year. These bills will be introduced shortly and we will need your help advocating for other elected officials to support them. We’ll keep you informed about the status of this legislation.
Most recently, ERCSD Interim Superintendent Dr. Anthony DiCarlo ordered a forensic audit after $90 million of unused and unaccounted funds for the ERCSD were discovered (Read more about this here).
LAUNCHING THIS SPRING
5. “Grow the Love” spring season of giving and community celebration
To have an even greater impact this year to counter the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, Proyecto Faro established 5 goals for 2025:
- Increase the number of immigrants we support & organize
- Expand immigrant leadership development, engagement & base-building work
- Increase community involvement & effectiveness in actions and advocacy campaigns that protect & support immigrants and their families
- Strengthen partnerships & collaborations
- Build the capacity & well-being of our staff
To fund these goals, we’re launching a spring season of giving that includes a 2-month online fundraiser and concludes with the 2nd Annual Grow the Love Benefit & Community Celebration in June (exact date TBD).
Please visit our Grow the Love fundraising campaign page to make a donation. We will be in touch soon with details about the Grow the Love Benefit & Community Celebration.
2024 Grow the Love Benefit & Celebration
6. Join our new reading group in collaboration with Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow (RCENJC) on March 20
READ/LISTEN! REFLECT! DIALOGUE! ACT!
Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow & Proyecto Faro invite you to the launch of a community reading group on Thursday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. Zoom link
We will dig into readings and media focusing on peace movements, all forms of justice, and healing. We hope to build an intergenerational space for critical reflection to inform and motivate our shared sense of purpose and action. During the first meeting, we will: 1) develop shared goals, 2) brainstorm a list of possible readings and media for our focus, and 3) iron out logistics (e.g. in-person or zoom, regular meeting dates/times, etc.)
If you have questions or can’t make it on Thursday, March 20 but still want to get involved, please reach out to: Marc Pessin, Rockland Coalition to End the Jim Crow, (845) 290-9442, progressive9@aol.com OR Tammy Arnstein, Proyecto Faro, tarnstein@proyectofarorockland.org