August 3-6
First Unitarian’s Social Justice Director, Dana Buhl, and members of the Immigrant Justice Action Group will be traveling to the border to join the national religious witness called #Faith Floods the Desert. We will be joining a delegation led by the UU College of Social Justice and No More Deaths / No Más Muertes on August 3-6th.
We will join with humanitarian aid workers who provide food and water in the desert and together resist government repression of this life-saving work. First Unitarian would like to encourage young adults to join the delegation. If you are a young adult, are interested and available to join us but would need financial help to come, please email Dana: dbuhl@firstunitarianportland.org.
We are called to resist through solidarity with migrating people and alongside humanitarian aid workers. Nine No More Deaths humanitarian-aid volunteers currently face federal felony and misdemeanor charges. Nationwide, immigration justice organizers are being targeted by federal agencies. As religious people, we answer to a higher law of love and justice. We know that humanitarian aid is not a crime. Migration is not a crime. Drop the charges. Flood the desert.
We’ll gather in southern Arizona as Unitarian Universalists and people of faith and courage from around the country on Friday, August 3rd. We’ll spend Saturday building community with each other and getting oriented and trained by the incredible organizing team at No More Deaths / No Más Muertes along with local faith and justice partners. We’ll learn more deeply about the struggle against the criminalization of migration and those who resist the crisis of death and disappearance in the US/Mexico borderlands, as well as about how to engage in the fight for immigrant justice wherever you may live. On Sunday, we will flood the desert. Depending on your role, you may hike out into the desert carrying water, you may drive and then place water, or you may support in other ways. We’ll close with a community potluck and blessing.
If you would like to join our delegation, please fill out this registration form, and send an email to dbuhl@firstunitarianportland.org to let us know you’ll be with us!