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APRIL 2025

Circle Leaders gathered in prayer and support for women facing possible deportation -- and created a RAPID RESPONSE strategy.

As the Threat of Deportation Grows,

SNL Prepares Rapid Response Strategy

A key leader of SNL was spared deportation last week, but thousands more across the State are under constant threat of arrest and detention. To prepare our leaders and members, SNL created a Rapid Response strategy while continuing our education and direct support work.

1. Individual Detained: FAMILY CRISIS RESPONSE: When a member has a family member or friend detained, the first step is to contact SNL-- Bill (313-549-0421) or Laura (313-544-2008). Next steps include:

FIRST DAY TRIAGE: helping the family with ICE Locator, contacts for lawyers and paralegals, tips on avoiding lawyer-fraud, etc.

FAMILY IN CRISIS MEETING: Circle Leaders, other community members, meet by zoom or in person with the family to determine their financial, emotional, and physical needs; or connecting them with legal support. SNL staff have resources to assist Circles faced with this type of crisis.

2. ACTION IN RESPONSE TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS: actions aimed at changing a policy or practice of a public institution such as Law Enforcement, Schools, Businesses. Rapid Response Team members Nick Chuey (Our Lady of the Woods in Woodhaven), Veronica Camarena, (St. Andre Bessette in Ecorse), Mike and Carmen Kelly (Perpetual Help in Oak Park), and Marisa Gaggino ("The New Circle") will organize delegations to visit:

PONTIAC POLICE CHIEF: to challenge the practice of a local police officer apprehending a person in a grocery store and turning them over to ICE.
DETROIT 3 RD PRECINCT COMMANDER: to express our disappointment in the officer violating Detroit Police Department protocol and calling ICE on an immigrant reporting a crime.
SUPERINTENDENT OF LINCOLN PARK SCHOOLS: to expand a policy to ensure all LP schools follow the protocol established by the LP High School Principal.

3. COMMUNITY WIDE CAMPAIGN RESPONSE/ URGENT ACTION BLASTS

When a larger issue arises, such as legislation or defunding legal representation for Immigrant children, and a campaign is necessary, the Rapid Response Team will mobilize other members through urgent action email/text blast s or phone trees to contact:

Members of Congress, other Elected Officials
Bishops, other religious leaders
Reporters, Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter)

For more information and a list of public officials with contact info, click Rapid Response Plan

Hosting a "Know Your Rights" Presentation. Circles are encouraged to host a Know Your Rights presentation and to distribute the Know Your Rights Red Cards to church members, and local businesses. For copies, email: luna.s@strangersnolonger.org.

Next Rapid Response Meeting, Wednesday, April 23 at 9:00 AM, Newcomers Welcome! For Zoom link, Register Here

Annual Banquet, Sunday April 27, 1-4pm

Tickets nearly sold out, Poppy Hernandez, Director of Global Michigan to keynote

Only a handful of tickets are available for the Strangers No Longer 4th Annual Banquet on Sunday April 27 from 1-4pm. The event will be held at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, 26601 Ryan Rd, Warren, MI 48091 and will feature Ms. Poppy Hernandez, Director of Global Michigan and the Governor's Office of Equity and Inclusion. Our basket raffle will be held again this year (raffle proceeds to our "Families in Crisis" fund) and we will celebrate our work and recognize Circle Leaders.

Please contact your Circle Leader to ask about tickets, or email June Porter at: Jun4port@yahoo.com.

Youth from 12 local Catholic High Schools participated in this year's Youth Conference.

Youth Immigration Conference Inspires Catholic High School

Students to Take Action

Original Article in the Detroit Catholic by Kaylee Razo- March 28, 2025

Youth in Action for Immigration is the youth-led council of Strangers No Longer, a statewide organization guided by Catholic faith to fight for immigration justice.

The 5th Annual SNL Youth in Action Conference was part of a larger effort to spread awareness and inspire action among Catholic high school students across Michigan. Marian High School teacher Michelle Denton explained that many of her students did not have personal experience with immigration, and events like these were key to developing empathy and inspiring students to take action.

Other Catholic students were fueled by their faith and personal experience with immigration to attend the conference. Sofia Dussan Bronson, a sophomore at Father Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor and the daughter of Colombian immigrants, explained that her faith and background guided her to “lead with love, mercy, and hospitality, especially to the most vulnerable in (her) community, just like Jesus taught.”

Kimberly Redigan, the campus minister at Cristo Rey High School, contributed a reflection, empathizing that Jesus was a refugee and taught that “love has no borders, justice has no borders, and humanity has no borders.”

The Catholic high school students who helped plan and facilitate this event were driven by the same hope of living out their Catholic faith, spreading awareness, and igniting change. To read the complete article, click here.

Journey Into Exile Event in March

Journey into Exile, held on March 15, was a unique event co-sponsored by SNL and the Jesuit Refugee Services, Canada. At the event each participant was given a refugee to accompany on their journey. People were from three different regions, Africa, Latin American/Caribbean, and the Middle East. One of the exercises was to choose three things to take with them as they left their countries of origin. They had to decide between travelling to Europe or to the United States to seek asylum; going to a refugee camp or staying as an Urban refugee.

Participants learned that many didn’t survive their journeys and had to go back to their counties of origin. They heard the stories of all the difficult decisions refugees face and how most start their journeys as a way to survive, others because of love for their family and hope for a better future.

Sonya Luna shared her experience, "Out of 22 displaced people I was the only one approved for resettlement in the United States of America after living in a refugee camp and starting my own business with only $200 dollars. I was a 16 year old woman from South Sudan with an infant child. I was happy to have made it to the USA but, sad for the others."

Holy Week Events

Strangers No Longer encourages you to join in these Holy Week Events As a Call to Action

Migrant Stations of the Cross/El Via Crucis del Migrante, April 18 at 7 pm

St. Mary Student Parish, 331 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Live Stations of the Cross in Spanish, Good Friday, April 18 at 1pm

Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit, 1000 St Anne St, Detroit, MI 48216

Stations of the Cross, Good Friday, April 18 at 12 noon

St. Andre' Bessette Catholic Church, 4250 W Jefferson Ave, Ecorse, MI 48229

SNL Bird Flu Team Grows

Beginning in August 2024, SNLh, with a CDC grant from the National Center for Farmworker Health, has been recruiting a team to educate Dairy Workers in Michigan on the dangers of Bird Flu -- and how to prevent its spread among humans. Wild birds spread the flu to chickens, and dairy herds pick up the virus in the yard. The extreme danger is when humans (Dairy Workers) contract the flu and begin passing it to other humans.

We now have a team of 8 bi-lingual Outreach Workers, coordinated by Project Manager Carmen Luna. Their work is centered in 4 counties of the Thumb Region, and in Mid-West Michigan near Ionia and Greenview. Team member Rosa Yanez was featured in a recent national article about the difficulties of educating on Bird Flu in the midst of the immigration crisis.

Recently, Detroit PBS did a show about Bird Flu and its impact on our food supply.

Watch the video and learn more.

For more information on this work, contact Carmen Elena Luna, Avian Flu Project Manager at: luna.c@strangersnolonger.org.

Impact Report

What would happen if there were to be mass deportations? What impact would it have on American Christian families?

The One Part of the Body report jointly produced by the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Refugee and Migration Services, along with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and World Relief addresses this topic.

Read the Report: One Part of the Body: The Potential of Deportations on American Christian Families

NEWS AND EVENTS

News: