The late Pope Francis, who died last April at the age of 88 following an illness, was a stalwart defender of the rights, dignity, and humanity of immigrants and refugees. A new joint effort by a Catholic parish and local service providers in southern California is living up to those values.

The Pope Francis Center, located across the street from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in San Diego’s Logan Heights, “will serve as a welcoming and supportive space that connects immigrant individuals and families with our three areas of ministry: essential resource navigation, spiritual and emotional accompaniment, and legal services,” the organization’s website said. “This center will embody Pope Francis’ vision of a church that is welcoming, una iglesia en salida, a church of encounter.”

Brinkley Johnson, manager of the Pope Francis Center, “has spent months hearing directly from church members to find out what the greatest need is,” KPBS reported. “Mental health services are something that came up repeatedly, especially for mixed-status families where the children might be U.S. citizens, but their parents are undocumented.” Nationally, an estimated 4.4 million American citizen children have at least one undocumented parent, according to the American Immigration Council.

And when a trip to the grocery store or school drop-off can now result in detention and family separation, requests for legal assistance have also been a major concern, Johnson said. In coordination with Alliance San Diego, Casa Cornelia Law Center, and the American Bar Association’s Immigration Justice Project, the Pope Francis Center hopes to address some of these concerns and help the daily lives of immigrant neighbors who help make up this vibrant community.

“What we want to do here is create a space of hope and a space for welcome,” Johnson told KPBS. “We might not be able to solve all the problems — in fact, we certainly cannot — and we aren’t able to reduce all the suffering our government is causing. But we want to offer something that is meaningful and worthwhile.”

Faith in action continues to play out in communities all across the country in recent weeks. Amid rumors that federal immigration enforcement actions may next target Haitian community members in Springfield, Ohio, locals have been organizing to protect their neighbors, The 19th reports.

“Church-supervised hubs to house and care for children separated from their parents. Phone chains to activate citizen networks if federal immigration agents are spotted in the community. Volunteers to deliver food to hungry neighbors from their own cars instead of food pantry trucks. Training on what to do if agents breach one of the churches planning to provide sanctuary to immigrant families,” the report said. “These are just some of the preparations that residents of Springfield, Ohio, have made in recent days as the country barrels toward the end of an immigration program that has allowed some 330,000 Haitians to legally live and work in the United States because of the rampant violence and political volatility in Haiti.”

In Maine, another recent target of the federal government’s mass deportation agenda, clergy formed a “spiritual ‘shield’ outside workplaces to protect immigrants from ICE,” Religion News Service reported. The Rev. Jane Field, a Presbyterian Church minister and leader from the Maine Council of Churches, said that around two dozen clergy members gathered daily over the past week to form a sort of “shield” around a local business that employs a number of immigrant neighbors. While they can not interfere with immigration actions, their presence was a moral one. Recall that when faith leaders including San Diego Bishop Michael Pham accompanied immigrants to their court dates last year, agents “scattered.”

“The rotating band of clergy has gotten used to staring down agents during what has become a twice-daily ritual, she said, with officials often driving by or sometimes lingering in the parking lot,” the Religion News Service report continued. “‘ICE has been there almost every time,’ Field said.”

Also this week, several hundred people of faith protested in Washington, D.C. to demand that federal lawmakers vote against mass deportation funding. Several of those arrested by police included clergy leaders like Unitarian Universalist Association President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt.

“I am here today with my siblings of many faith traditions because we know that budgets are moral documents,” she said at the interfaith “Praying with Our Feet” event. “There is no moral justification for voting for a budget that will put more resources toward the violation and dehumanization of our neighbors. As religious leaders, we have an ethical obligation to show up and say that this will not be done in our name.” In her remarks, the Rev. Dr. Betancourt alluded to powerful demonstrations of solidarity and community all across the country.

“We are faithfully following the leadership of those who are giving everything they have to protect their neighbors,” she continued. “And we will do everything in our power to end the desecration and to restore the soul of this nation.”

ICE “messed with the wrong profession,” nurses said in taking to the streets as part of the nationwide demands for justice following the brutal murder of VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of masked mass deportation agents in Minnesota on Jan. 24.

“Federal immigration agents have murdered one of our own, ICU registered nurse Alex Pretti, who saved veterans’ lives at the Minneapolis VA,” National Nurses United said in a statement.  “Pretti upheld his oath to advocate for and protect his patients and community to the very end as a peaceful, public legal observer of ICE atrocities.” Pretti, who carried only his phone in his hand, had been checking in on a fellow observer who’d been pepper-sprayed when a mob of agents tackled him and repeatedly shot him “point-blank.” He died at the scene.

National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the nation, said that it was activating their members to get out  to “honor Pretti and all who have been murdered by ICE, as well as demand that Congress vote to immediately abolish this violent, racist, and lawless agency that poses a dire public health threat to all of our communities,” with rallies for accountability taking place in more than a dozen states.

At a rally outside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Jan. 28, a fellow ICU nurse said that Pretti died practicing his values.

“It is a core value to advocate for our patients and our communities,” Roxette Villegas said. “What Alex Pretti was going – he was doing the exact same thing. He was using his nursing experience to advocate outside of the hospital.” Nurses and community members also rallied outside UCI Health in Orange, California. “And to see him just being shot while helping, and being, you know, practicing what he loves to do, which is caring for somebody who’s hurting, is really sad,” UCI registered nurse Marlene Tucay said through tears.

In a vigil at the Minnesota location where Pretti was gunned down by federal agents, nurse Theresa Goodfell said she felt “compelled” to visit the flower-laden site. “We all say an oath when we graduate from nursing school, and he upheld that oath until the very end,” she said.

“The impact of Pretti’s death has undoubtedly reverberated across America, but perhaps more deeply among the nation’s nurses and health care professionals, who see themselves reflected in the actions he took before his death,” The 19th reported. “It’s a sentiment that has come up again and again as nurses, a workforce dominated by women, begin mobilizing in Pretti’s name. A social media campaign, ‘Alex Pretti was one of us,’ is taking off. On the streets, nurses are protesting, holding vigils and saying Pretti’s name at strike picket lines.”

“Stories of Pretti’s life that have emerged show the role he played in supporting his women colleagues,” the report continued. “Nationally, only about 11 percent of nurses are men. Dr. Avalon Swenson, a resident physician in Minnesota, recently recounted working with Pretti at the VA ICU, where he ‘made a point of asking my opinion and making sure my patients had what they needed without my asking.’”

71-year-old Air Force veteran Sonny Fouts said Pretti was his ICU nurse when he underwent a descending aorta aneurysm repair procedure just weeks ago. He and his loved ones remembered his compassionate bedside manner and have been very affected by his death, People reported.

“I walked in, and Sonny’s just hooked up to so many machines and needles and tubes, and Alex was his nurse and he just lightened the situation,” his partner Kimberly told People. “There are nurses who come in and don’t really say anything, and Alex was not like that. I appreciated that I immediately felt comfortable with him. And I felt that Sonny was in good hands.”

“The veteran tells PEOPLE he’s had a headache and a stomach ache, as well as trouble sleeping, since he learned what happened to Pretti,” the report continued. “I don’t like looking at the TV about it. I don’t want to read any newspaper stories,” Fouts said. “I don’t use the word ‘hero,’ but I guess I could say that.”

Pretti’s death and the heartfelt words from his former colleagues and patients are reminders that when one member of our national community gets attacked, it affects all of us. And when the very people who help care for us have already been doing so under strenuous workplace circumstances that show no sign of improving any time soon, they deserve better. “We’re a profession where our purpose in life is to be the caretakers of society — the caretakers of people,” National Nurses United president and ICU nurse Mary Turner told The 19th. “That involves so much mental, emotional, physical, spiritual effort, that when something like what happened to Alex happens, it is a devastating blow to our very soul.”

From delivering groceries to families who can’t leave their homes to patrolling the streets as part of ICE watches, Minneapolis neighbors and community members are coming to each other’s aid – and inspiring the rest of us.

Since December, Iglesia Dios Habla Hoy, which serves the area’s Latino community members, has been hard at working helping feed families who can’t leave their homes amid the federal government’s violent overreach. When Pastor Sergio Amezcua “first asked his assistant to put out a call on social media, he thought they would receive a few requests,” KARE 11 reported. “Right now, they’re distributing anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 pounds of food per week with the help of hundreds of volunteers.”

It’s not just assistance with meals, either. When Rev. Amezcua found out that one community member was resorting to reusing disposable diapers, he leapt into action. “I sent a text, if you can donate diapers,” he told KARE 11. “Our volunteer force showed up with what you see here.”

This fire is everywhere. Somali neighbors who have time and time again been the target of racist slander by the administration are responding not with fear but with courage, “from homemade sambusas for protesters to foot patrols on the lookout for ICE,” The Intercept reported. Like Iglesia Dios Habla Hoy, community member Abdi Rahman said this includes buying and delivering groceries for families unable to safely step outside their front doors.

“When ICE started showing up in our neighborhoods, we realized we can’t fight the federal government. But we can come together and patrol the neighborhood, keep ICE out, deescalate,” he told The Intercept. Many of these community members have been here before. Resiliency is a part of their DNA.

“Mahmoud Hasan, a community activist whom everyone refers to as BBC, was in a refugee camp after fleeing civil strife in Somalia in the 1990s,” the report continued. “He earned his moniker because, living in the camp, he learned English strictly by watching the BBC and would practice by speaking like a news anchor. ‘We fled a civil war,’ Hasan said. ‘We are more resilient than they think.’”

This energy is also manifesting across the state on Friday, January 23, in the form a “Day of Truth and Freedom,” which is encouraging all Minnesotans – and all of Americans outraged over daily abuses of power at the hands of the federal government – to come “together in moral reflection” and skip work, school, and shopping.

“The ICE ‘surge’ that cost the life of Renee Nicole Good is violating the Constitutional and human rights of Americans and our neighbors,” states the action’s website. “It is time to suspend the normal order of business to demand immediate cessation of ICE actions in MN, accountability for federal agents who have caused loss of life and abuse to Minnesota residents and call for Congress to immediately intervene.”

The day of action is truly unprecedented. Labor outlet Payday Report said that “tens of thousands of workers in Minneapolis are expected to take to the streets in a mass general strike. The ‘Day of Truth and Freedom’ has been endorsed by all the major labor organizations in Minnesota. Every major school and cultural institution, as well as hundreds of restaurants and small businesses, are expected to close.”

CWA Local 7520 President Kieran Knutson said “that the idea of a general strike emerged when SEIU Local 26 proposed a mass day of action to a group of progressive unions,” the report said. “SEIU Local 26, whose members are largely immigrant janitorial workers, sought help from other unions in fighting back as their members took a beating from ICE raids.” Knutson said that after Good’s killing, “I think a lot of us said, we have to move. We have to do stuff now.”

Faith leaders are participating in the strike, with religion reporter Jack Jenkins highlighting that many are staging a protest outside the Minneapolis airport. “Side note: It is — and I cannot stress this enough — literally extremely cold,” he noted. But the weather has met its match, with Jenkins noting that the crowd continued to grow to the point of pouring out into the street.

Hundreds of clergy members have also descended across the city this week to help observe federal immigration actions. “The clergy, who hail from a range of traditions and worship communities across the country, sang on the buses as they ventured out into the street. They belted out hymns and songs popular during the Civil Rights Movement, such as ‘Woke Up This Morning,’” Religion News Service reported.

The Rev. James Galasinski, who came in from New York, said he and several other faith leaders had been out monitoring for just a few minutes when they witnessed a dozen mass deportation agents harass an individual who appeared to be an American citizen.

“The ministers — all wearing clerical stoles — began blowing whistles, attempting to alert the nearby community. ICE agents surrounded one of the women from the minivan and instructed the pastors to get back,” the report said. Rev. Dan Brockway, “standing behind the other faith leaders, began livestreaming the encounter to his church’s Facebook page.” When the woman was able to produce paperwork, she was let go. “I saw it,” said Rev. Galasinski. “I mean, demanding papers? I never thought I would live in a country like this.”

Religion News Service also reported that at least 100 rabbis and Jewish leaders are among the faith leaders defending Minneapolis neighbors. Rabbi Diane Tracht, who arrived from Indiana, called it a commandment of her faith and Jewish experience. “What did we learn from the Holocaust? We have to act and we have to resist,” she said. “If I’m not going to act and resist now, then I shouldn’t call myself a rabbi and I can’t be a proud Jew.”

Es difícil creer que el presidente apenas cumplió este 20 de enero el primer año de su segunda administración porque su efecto ha sido tan devastador en tantos frentes, globales y domésticos, que parece que han transcurrido años. Y lo que falta.

Los inmigrantes se han llevado la peor parte de una guerra sin cuartel que es un monstruo de varias cabezas que nos ataca a todos de una forma u otra. Porque los inmigrantes no operan en un vacío. Son parte de familias, comunidades, la economía, y todo se ha visto adversamente afectado.

Lo que comenzó como una campaña de detenciones y deportaciones supuestamente de “criminales”, se tornó en una amplia red de terror sustentada en el uso ilegítimo de perfiles raciales que se lleva por delante a residentes autorizados y a ciudadanos estadunidenses forzados a llevar consigo pasaportes para probar su ciudadanía y ni eso los ha salvado de ser abusados por agentes migratorios. Se violentan el debido proceso de ley, el estado de derecho y la Constitución.

En este primer año Trump sentó las bases de una peligrosa militarización de ciudades y estados dirigidos por demócratas desplegando guardias nacionales para asistir a agentes de ICE y de CBP, enmascarados y en autos sin identificar, que abusan de su autoridad tornándose cada vez más violentos al grado de matar a tiros a una ciudadana estadounidense, Renee Nicole Good, en Minneapolis. Ninguna de las ciudades sitiadas solicitó asistencia del gobierno federal.

Es una estrategia de provocación donde el propio gobierno federal promueve el caos para generar violencia que justifique invocar medidas extremas como la Ley de Insurrección que le permite al presidente desplegar el Ejército a nivel doméstico. Trump lleva tiempo amenazando a ciudades como Minneapolis con la Ley de Insurrección.

Con sus bajos índices de popularidad y la posibilidad de perder el control de la Cámara Baja y potencialmente del Senado en las elecciones intermedias, no se descarta que Trump trate incluso de decretar la ley marcial cuando las Fuerzas Armadas asumen el control de una zona específica o de todo el país y se suspenden todas las leyes y los derechos civiles, incluidas las elecciones.

En materia migratoria, Trump se ha valido mayormente de órdenes ejecutivas para sustentar cambios que buscan reducir e incluso eliminar los mecanismos para inmigrar o permanecer legalmente en Estados Unidos, desde el asilo y el refugio, hasta programas como el TPS, el parole humanitario y la concesión de visas de inmigrantes, visas de trabajo y otros. Ha deslegalizado a millones de inmigrantes para hacerlos vulnerables a la deportación.

“El Instituto de Política Migratoria (MPI) estima que la administración Trump, en el primer año de su segundo mandato, tomó más de 500 medidas en materia de inmigración, superando las 472 medidas tomadas durante los cuatro años del primer mandato de Trump”, concluye un análisis del MPI.

Aparte de deslegalizar a millones de inmigrantes que tenían protección de deportación, permisos de trabajo y pagaban impuestos, también ha impedido que otros millones puedan ajustar su estatus. Ha cancelado ceremonias de naturalización.

Ha deportado a 622,000 inmigrantes, algunos a países con los cuales no tienen ningún vínculo. Todavía no llegan al millón de deportados al año como se han impuesto. Otros se han autodeportado. La cifra de detenidos ronda los 73,000, la más alta en 25 años. Y la mayor parte no tiene historial criminal.

Aunque algunas medidas han sido frenadas en tribunales de menor instancia, la Corte Suprema ha sido más favorable hacia Trump. Uno de los casos pendientes más esperados es el de eliminar la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento a bebés de padres indocumentados.

En un solo año la política migratoria de Trump ha causado daños devastadores no solo a las familias separadas sino a las comunidades que sufren el embate y la economía que se ve afectada por la reducción de trabajadores y de consumidores que paguen impuestos y auspicien negocios. La seguridad pública sufre por el desvío de fondos y personal a labores  migratorias.

“Es innegable que el primer año de Trump 2.0 ha traído consigo algunos de los cambios más profundos en la política de inmigración de la historia moderna, y la administración tiene tres años por delante para profundizar su impacto. Queda por ver si estos cambios representarán un desvío temporal o un cambio fundamental en el futuro del país”, concluyó el análisis del MPI.

La interrogante y la preocupación es qué sigue. Cuando se toca fondo la alternativa es subir. Un cambio de mando en el Congreso podría servir de contrapeso al asalto de Trump sentando las bases para reformas migratorias que por décadas ambos partidos evadieron, algo que ahora muchos lamentan.

The 56-year-old American citizen who was wrongfully detained by mass deportation agents and dragged out of his home into the bitter cold in nothing but his underwear, Crocs, and a thin open blanket says he feels “fear, shame and desperation” after the dehumanizing ordeal at the hands of an overreaching federal government, Reuters reports.

ChongLy Thao, a naturalized U.S. citizen who goes by “Scott” and is of Hmong descent, was not even a target of ICE’s operation. In fact, reporting would later reveal that one of the men pursued by the agency is already in prison. Mr. Thao’s family said that they don’t know the individuals that federal agents claimed to be pursuing, nor do these individuals live at the residence. Instead, “it appears Thao was taken half-naked in 10 degree weather simply because he’s Asian,” independent journalist Marisa Kabas reported.

“Shortly after the men busted down Thao’s door, they came out with their supposed target in hand: A short, elderly, half-naked man being marched out of his home,” Kabas reported. “Photos from that moment show his grandson looking out the window, a pacifier in his mouth.” The photo showed Mr. Thao wrapped in a thin, open blanket that he’d grabbed from his grandson after ICE agents cruelly denied him a chance to put on some clothes to shield him from the Minnesota winter. “The highest temperature in Saint Paul on Sunday was 14 degrees Fahrenheit,” Reuters said.

Mr. Thao was eventually released from custody “without explanation or apology,” Reuters continued. “I was praying. I was like, God, please help me, I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “Why do they do this to me? Without my clothes on.”

TIME TO STOP THE ‘KAVANAUGH STOPS’

It’s a question that Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh should have to answer himself, after authoring a concurrence in the Supreme Court shadow docket ruling that gives mass deportation agents the green light to racially profile and harass Americans like Mr. Thao. In his concurrence, Kavanaugh insisted that any wrongful targeting of U.S. citizens by ICE would prove nothing more than a mild inconvenience. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

Mr. Thao isn’t the only recently detained American who might disagree with Kavanaugh’s claim. “A combat-wounded Army veteran says federal immigration agents detained him for about eight hours after he watched an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest from a public sidewalk in south Minneapolis,” KARE 11 reports. William Vermie, “who served in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart, said he was standing on a sidewalk observing agents arresting two people when he says officers began pushing bystanders back.”

The veteran said that when he didn’t move quickly enough, he was detained by multiple agents and was subsequently denied a phone call while in custody. “They did offer bathroom breaks and water breaks, and I did ask for a band-aid and they gave it to me,” Vermie told KARE 11. “But I’d rather have a lawyer than a band-aid when I’m being detained.”

“I have represented people accused of the most horrific crimes,” his attorney told the outlet, “and I have never encountered the type of stonewalling, deliberate stonewalling and delay, that I experienced in trying to see Will.”

MAKING AMERICA WEAKER, POORER, LESS SAFE

“One year into his second term, it’s crystal clear that Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda is making America weaker, poorer and less safe – from a failing economy to families being torn apart to an assault on our cities and our due process rights,” America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said this week, noting that the administration’s anti-immigrant obsessions have served as the “tip of the spear” for a “broader assault on the rights and civil liberties of all Americans.”

In October, ProPublica said its investigation found more than 170 cases where U.S. citizens were detained at raids and protests. “Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.” Or in the case of Mr. Thao, in the snow while in his underwear.

The attacks against our neighbors and their freedoms regardless of legal immigration status have only worsened since the article’s publishing in the fall. “Fed agent permanently blinds, fractures skull of anti-ICE protester,” the New Republic reported Jan 14. “Woman dragged from car by ICE agents yells ‘I’m disabled’ in chaotic scene in Minneapolis,” The Independent said that same day. On Jan. 7, an ICE agent brutally shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a Minnesota mom of three. “ICE agents have shot at least nine people in their vehicles since September,” Common Dreams reported. Just days after Good’s killing, an ICE agent reportedly invoked the mom and award-winning poet in order to intimidate another observer. “You guys gotta stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian b—— is dead,” the agent said according to MPR News.

“From normalizing the massive domestic deployment of armed and masked federal agents, and in some cases military troops, against the will of American communities; to the targeting and persecution of citizens and non-citizens alike; to the subversion of due process rights and First Amendment protections are just a few examples of the assault on America,” Cárdenas continued. “This administration is engaging in deliberate provocations – relying on the pretext of immigration – that raise the possibility of violence, trample on core democratic traditions and aim to keep our nation needlessly divided.”

The federal government keeps showing us that no one is safe – including Americans who fled here for safety in the first place. Mr. Thao was born in Laos and was brought here by his parents in 1974  when he was just four. “We came here for a purpose, right,” he told Reuters. “To have a bright future. To have a safe place to live. If this is going to turn out to be America, what are we doing here? Why are we here?”

AMERICANS ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST TRUMP’S OVERREACH

But even in the face of these dangers and threats, Americans are showing more courage and bravery than many with much more power and are saying they will keep each other safe. The weekend after Good’s death, Americans took part in more than 1,000 events to demand accountability and justice for their neighbors

“We do not need to accept what is happening in our country and in our own community,” Sister Suzie Armbruster said at a Scranton, Pennsylvania rally. “We stand strong and believe that good people overtake evil. We hold everything in our hearts. We hold all of our brothers and sisters, no matter where they’re from. We hold all of them … those that are living right here in our own community. We remember Renee Good. We remember all those that have been victims of violence, and we know that we can join our hearts and voices in a peaceful way.” Tempe resident Laurie Green told ABC15 Arizona that she was “standing up for my neighbors. I am not happy with what happened in Minneapolis.” The protests are “heartening,” said Phoenix resident Kelly Carmody. “I hope many others show up and share what they think should be done.’”

This month marks one year since a series of wildfires devastated the Los Angeles area, killing as many as 440 people, displacing more than 200,000 residents, and causing more than $53 billion dollars in damage. But even in the midst of this catastrophic devastation, there were small glimmers in hope. Just look at the immigrant and Latino community members who gathered buckets and hoses to help try to stop the devastation from spreading, as we noted last year.

Housekeeper Maria Garcia told NPR at the time that she didn’t even live in the neighborhood where a reporter for the outlet took a picture of her hosing down some rubble. Garcia, who is undocumented, said she just couldn’t stop thinking about the devastation hitting the region she calls home and felt like she had to do something.

“She couldn’t sleep Tuesday night knowing houses there were burning. So she got out of bed early Wednesday and said to her children: ‘Let’s go help, if we can,’” the report said. “She called her brothers and some friends and they all gathered buckets and hoses and drove into a part of the Altadena community where houses were ablaze. Then they got to work putting out fires.”

“Our values and our principles come first, that’s what our parents taught us,” she told NPR. “They always used to say, help others without concern for who they are or why they need help.” Juan Carlos Pascual Tolentino, another immigrant volunteer, told NPR that documentation is irrelevant when it comes to helping a neighbor. “When you support someone, you strengthen your union with them,” he said. “When you stop and ask if they could use a hand, they’ll remember that.”

Immigrant workers have historically been critical to disaster recovery efforts. Following Hurricane Michael’s devastation in 2019, immigrant workers “toiled day and night” across Florida’s Bay County “to reopen Panama City’s City Hall, repair the local campus of Florida State University and fix damaged roofs on several churches,” The New York Times reported at the time. In fact, immigrant workers have been so essential to disaster recovery, that a statue in New Orleans honors the Latino workers, many also foreign-born, who helped rebuild the city following Katrina.

“Like farm workers in the fields, immigrants are indispensable to fire, flood and hurricane recovery in the US,” Saket Soni, executive director of disaster response organization Resilience Force, told The Guardian last year. “There is absolutely no rebuilding without them.”

Yet the federal government has impeded recovery efforts by targeting the very workers who are critical to our nation’s ability to rebound from disasters such as the L.A. wildfires. “Day laborers who are helping families rebuild in the Eaton Fire zones are scared to go to work, fearing to encounter federal immigration agents,” NBC 4 Los Angeles reported Jan. 9. “Standing in front of an Altadena home that was burned down in the 2025 wildfire, Jose Madera, director for the Pasadena Community Job Center, said the construction process has been delayed as workers are afraid that they may be targeted in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.”

“These ICE raids, this hate and terror into our community. Masked men, armed, in unmarked cars are coming into our community. That’s halting the recovery,” Madera said. “That’s halting the rebuilding. That’s halting families to come back to their community.”

Just look at the terrifying mass deportation efforts that have been ongoing at the area’s Home Depot stores, which have long been a hub for immigrant workers and prospective employers specializing in construction. “These same lots have become key targets for immigration enforcement,” the Los Angeles Times reported in November. The administration’s unlawful invasion last summer expanded these dangers beyond the store chain’s parking lots. 

The New York Times reported this past summer how one team of day laborers that had been working to decontaminate homes affected by the fires had no choice but to stay home following a nearby raid that made their essential work too risky to carry out that day.

“Sweating in masks and protective suits, they vacuumed toxic soot and ash, wiped down books and framed photos, and disposed of clothes and furniture that could not be salvaged,” the July 2025 report said. “One morning last month, they crammed into a small job center in Pasadena, Calif., ready for more work. But on this day, the situation felt too dangerous.”

This entirely preventable distress resulting from the federal government’s mass deportation agenda has not been unique to L.A., either. This past summer, a trio of economists noted that employment in construction had dropped in the ten states with the highest reliance on unauthorized workers. In Alabama, construction site superintendent Robby Robertson said he lost money after raids in nearby Florida scared off his workers. “Even though nearly two months have passed since then, he said a little more than half of his workforce has come back,” Common Dreams reported in July.

The dangers facing not just immigrant workers but everyone who calls this country home have only become more pronounced as L.A. remains in need of the skilled labor of immigrant workers. While the region “is showing signs of recovery,” “post-traumatic stress and avoidance of public life remain a part of life for many residents,” said the USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service. “Over 50% of L.A. County residents say they or someone they know has avoided public places, transit, work or school, medical care, or legal/government services due to safety concerns or recent events.”

The workers who are helping L.A. slowly bounce back deserve our thanks and the opportunity to continue thriving here, not to get kicked out of the community they’re helping to rebuild one hammer at a time.

The federal government’s mission to make as many immigrants deportable as possible rages on, after the administration announced it would seek to end temporary protections for Somali immigrants despite conditions remaining dire in Somalia by the federal government’s own admission.

“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” the Department of Homeland Security claimed in a Jan. 13 statement, urging Somali immigrants who’ve had permission to live and work in the U.S. to self-deport. “Somali nationals who do not have a legal status other than TPS that would allow them to remain in the United States should use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP Home mobile app to report their departure from the United States.”

But at the same time, State Department officials have issued a red alert urging Americans to not travel to Somalia, citing “crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health, kidnapping, piracy, and lack of availability of routine consular services.” 

“Due to security risks,” the State Department’s level four “Do Not Travel” alert continues, “U.S. government employees working in Somalia are prohibited from traveling outside the Mogadishu International Airport complex where the U.S. Embassy is located.” The level four alert is the most severe warning the federal government can issue.

This double-speak should come as no surprise. The federal government has also refused to reinstate TPS for Venezuela despite worsening conditions there following a deadly and unlawful military operation that has plunged the Latin American nation into uncertainty. Like in the case of Somalia, the federal government has claimed that Venezuela “today is more free than it was yesterday” and that Venezuelan immigrants should “go home.” U.S. citizens, however, are also being instructed by the State Department to stay away. 

“Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure,” reads the level four travel alert. And while some U.S. workers continue to work out of the U.S. embassy in Somalia, all Americans are being “strongly advised” to leave Venezuela immediately. “Do not travel to Venezuela for any reason,” the alert says in bold writing.

In a statement, the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) called the federal government’s effort to terminate Somali TPS the “latest bigoted attack on the Somali community.” As The New York Times reported in December, “Trump has a history of insulting people from African countries, but the outburst was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry.” During that rant, Trump called Somali neighbors “garbage” and people that “complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country.”

“Ending Somali TPS defies both logic and the basic purpose of the program,” said CAIR-CA CEO Hussam Ayloush. “The U.S. State Department continues to designate Somalia as a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ country due to the lack of basic security conditions that would place returning Somali TPS holders at constant risk through no fault of their own. Somalia remains a country that has endured decades of civil war, ongoing instability, and persistent threats from armed groups. Conditions on the ground have not meaningfully improved … This is not policy driven by facts; it is a political attack, and it puts lives at risk.”

Ifraax Saciied-Ciise, executive director of Maine-based IFKA Community Services, told WMTW News 8 that she was “very, very disappointed to hear that people who come here to seek protection and for them to deny them those protections.”

“Somali people are great people. They are hardworking. They are here for the American dream, like everybody else came here for the American dream,” Saciied-Ciise said. “And we’re here to add value to the economy and the community.” FWD.us noted in a report last year that TPS holders “contribute about $21 billion annually to the U.S. economy, in addition to the payment of $5.2 billion in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes.”

“Congress must intervene to block the termination of TPS for Somalia and conduct oversight of this discriminatory policy, and immigration courts must halt removals and uphold the rule of law,” CAIR-CA’s Ayloush continued. “This is not policy driven by facts; it is a political attack, and it puts lives at risk.” 

Leaders like Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins have also called for the reinstatement of Venezuelan TPS, saying that the “instability unfolding in Venezuela today makes it even clearer that the country remains unsafe for people to return.” Sebastian, a Venezuelan TPS holder who asked to be identified by his first name only, told NPR that he initially welcomed the news of Maduro’s removal from power. But he said his relief quickly turned to worry when he heard about U.S. plans to work with Maduro’s right-hand person, NPR said. Sebastian, an architect who calls Miami home, “said he feels the danger is still as present in Venezuela.” Luis Falcón, another Venezuelan migrant, said that “putting a foot back in Venezuela means I will be taken to jail, tortured, and potentially killed.”

“No one should be forced back into chaos and uncertainty,” Mayor Higgins said. TPS holders “have built lives here, contributed to our community, and deserve the security to remain while their homeland regains stability. This is not just a matter of policy — it is a matter of basic human dignity and safety.”

“What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We’re all finding out”

After nearly a month in ICE detention, Maryland-born mom Dulce Consuelo Díaz Morales is finally free and reunited with her loved ones.

The Washington Post reports that Díaz Morales was released from custody on Jan. 7, a full 25 days after she went to grab a bite at a fast food restaurant only to be targeted and swept up by mass deportation agents. While Díaz Morales tried to tell officers that she was a U.S. citizen, her claim was ignored. According to her attorney, Victoria Slatton, federal immigration officials accused her of faking her Maryland birth certificate and refused to release her from custody.

“Four days after her arrest, a Maryland District Court judge barred the government from deporting Diaz Morales while the court considered a petition from her lawyers challenging the detention,” The Post reported. But rather than free this wrongfully detained American, “Diaz Morales was transferred often and held in five detention centers in Maryland, Louisiana, Texas and, finally, New Jersey. Her lawyers were only able to speak to her twice during her detention, Slatton said.”

“Díaz Morales said she lived in Mexico starting at age seven and returned to the US more than a year and a half ago,” The Guardian reported. “She believes confusion arose because she used her mother’s last name while living in Mexico, whereas US records list both her father’s and mother’s last names.”

Whatever the confusion about last names, her Maryland birth certificate and immunization record from Anne Arundel County should have been enough to confirm her citizenship status. Instead, as we’ve seen in one instance after another since last year, her very identity as an American was put into doubt. Diaz Morales would end up missing the winter holidays with her son and loved ones. After nearly a month in custody, she was finally released.

“On Wednesday evening, Diaz Morales was being driven home to Maryland by her lawyers. She said she was looking forward to seeing her 5-year-old son and the rest of her family,” The Post continued. “Now that I am free, I feel much better, but while I was detained, the lows were really low and I felt very sad, but I thank God now it’s over,” she said. “I want to hug my son first and then my family.”

Her reunification with her family and friends comes as the nation has been outraged over ICE’s brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good, an unarmed American citizen, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Over the weekend, some 1,000 events across the country demanded justice for this award-winning poet, wife and mom of three. “I’m standing up for my neighbors,” said one attendee in Tempe, Arizona. “I am not happy with what happened in Minneapolis.”

But the federal government’s reaction hasn’t been to announce a thorough probe into the officer’s use of deadly force, but instead to shockingly push an investigation into Good’s widow Becca Good (in fact, six prosecutors resigned rather than take part in this despicable targeting) and make all Minnesotans less safe by deploying even more mass deportation agents into the state. We already knew that the Big, Ugly Budget funneled billions upon billions to ICE. What’s also true is that the federal government’s mass deportation fixation is endangering all of us by prioritizing mass deportation over bringing to justice drug traffickers, domestic extremists, and child predators.

“FBI agents reassigned to round up immigrants have had to walk away from investigations into violent predators who target and exploit children online,” MSNBC reported in September, with data revealing that the federal government pulled more than 2,800 agents from crime-fighting investigations in order to help carry out mass deportations and the “Kavanaugh stops” that have resulted in the unjust detention of Americans like Dulce Consuelo Díaz Morales.

But other federal law enforcement agencies that have been working to combat actual threats to our safety have also been stretched thin as well. Roughly 50% of DEA agents have been reassigned from targeting drug cartels and fentanyl traffickers in order to help ramp up deportation numbers. Over at the ATF,  80% of the agency’s 2,500 agents have been pulled into targeting hardworking immigrant moms and dads, stretching resources thin and diverting focus from investigating gun trafficking, bombings, and arson.

And at HSI – the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security – the agency’s 7,000 agents have been reassigned to mass deportation at the expense of investigating terrorism, child exploitation, and human trafficking.

The federal government is also making an already-deadly ICE even more dangerous by hiring individuals that are unqualified for any type federal law enforcement position, period. That includes “using white nationalist imagery and language to recruit new employees and arrest immigrants,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in August. “In some cases, the images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website.”

“What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We’re all finding out,” Slate’s Laura Jedeed wrote this week. She revealed that she recently applied at the agency in order to find out more about the hiring process. But to Jedeed’s shock, ICE offered her a job despite the fact that she never submitted any paperwork, never completed a background check, and likely failed a drug test. “To be clear, I barely applied to ICE. I skipped the steps of the application process that would have clued the agency in on my lack of fitness for the position.”

“How many convicted domestic abusers are being given guns and sent into other people’s homes?” Jedeed continued. “How many people with ties to white supremacist organizations are indiscriminately targeting minorities on principle, regardless of immigration status? How many rapists and pedophiles are working in ICE detention centers with direct and unsupervised access to a population that will be neither believed nor missed? How are we to trust ICE’s allegedly thorough investigations of the people they detain and deport when they can’t even keep their HR paperwork straight?”

It’s a question that should worry any American who cherishes their personal freedoms, their neighbors, and their very ability to live in peace and safety. The costs to our daily lives are rapidly rising, as other headlines from this past week alone show us. “Fed agent permanently blinds, fractures skull of anti-ICE protester,” the New Republic reported. “Woman dragged from car by ICE agents yells ‘I’m disabled’ in chaotic scene in Minneapolis,” The Independent said. “You guys gotta stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian b—— is dead,” one agent reportedly told an observer, referring to Renee Nicole Good, MPR News reported. The outlet said one observer was “asked to provide the names of people he knows that are undocumented or the names of protest organizers in exchange for money or legal protection.”

And while Díaz Morales is now free, her nightmare is nowhere close to over. “Slatton said the case against Diaz Morales has not yet been dismissed by the government and she could still face deportation proceedings,” The Post continued. “But Slatton is confident her client’s claim to citizenship has been established.”

“She is a U.S. citizen. She was born here. I think that we’ve presented more than enough evidence, but we will continue to fight it until every single court accepts and acknowledges it,” she said.

“When thousands of over-militarized immigration agents descend on American communities akin to an invading military force, it seeks to terrorize us, actively harms public safety and raises the likelihood of violence,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Meanwhile, the mass deportation agenda is diverting money, manpower, investigative attention and resources away from real threats – like child exploitation, drug trafficking investigations and FEMA disaster preparedness funding – all for the purpose of becoming foot soldiers in Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant crusade.”

“Instead of shrinking in fear right now, in order to stop this violence, we have to come together with one voice as a community and say, ‘no more,’” said one rally attendee

Outraged Americans took to the streets over the weekend as part of the “ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action” to decry the brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. In Minneapolis – the site of Good’s tragic death and one of more than 1,000 cities that held anti-ICE actions over the weekend – local law enforcement officials estimated that tens of thousands of Americans marched through the streets to mourn, demand justice for her death, and condemn the larger pattern of violence at the hands of masked and unaccountable federal agents nationwide.

“I’m insanely angry, completely heartbroken and devastated, and then just like longing and hoping that things get better,” community member Ellison Montgomery told Reuters. “We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday,” PBS News reported. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable,” she continued.

While demonstrators marched in righteous anger, there was also a strong sense of community among neighbors refusing to turn against each other.

“Large crowds of demonstrators were seen in major cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles,” CNN reported. “Smaller protests took place in Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; Durham, North Carolina; and Tempe, Arizona, where protesters lined a bridge overlooking a highway.” 

“I’m standing up for my neighbors. I am not happy with what happened in Minneapolis,” Tempe resident Laurie Green told ABC15 Arizona. “In downtown Phoenix, a smaller group of protesters gathered outside ICE offices Saturday morning, voicing similar concerns and calling for more public involvement. ‘It’s heartening,’ said Kelly Carmody, one of the protesters. ‘I hope many others show up and share what they think should be done.’”

In Florida, 97-year-old Milton Clark addressed attendees outside the Everglades detention camp, which has faced serious allegations of brutal violations against detained immigrants. “Liberty is fragile; you must be vigilant,” he said.

ARKANSAS:

CALIFORNIA:

MAINE:

NEBRASKA:

NEW JERSEY:

NEW YORK:

OHIO:

PENNSYLVANIA:

“Sister Suzie Armbruster, I.H.M., Scranton, recited a prayer during Sunday’s event,” The Times-Tribune reported. 

“We do not need to accept what is happening in our country and in our own community,” said Sister Armbruster. “We stand strong and believe that good people overtake evil. We hold everything in our hearts. We hold all of our brothers and sisters, no matter where they’re from. We hold all of them … those that are living right here in our own community. We remember Renee Good. We remember all those that have been victims of violence, and we know that we can join our hearts and voices in a peaceful way.”

TENNESSEE:

VIRGINIA:

“In Roanoke, the protest wasn’t just about national headlines,” reported WDBJ7. “For Amanda Vongphakdy, it was personal. Her father, who has lived in Roanoke for most of his life, was taken into ICE custody.” Vongphakdy said that she initially thought her dad was joking when he called her to say that ICE had swept him up. Her dad is a Laotian refugee who has called the U.S. his home since he was just 14. 

“I wake up every day asking myself if this is real,” said Vongphakdy, who felt it was important to take her two children to the protest. “My family and I are grieving a loved one who is alive but not able to be touched.”

“Instead of shrinking in fear right now, in order to stop this violence, we have to come together with one voice as a community and say, no more,” Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition’s Danny Clawson told WDBJ7.

Since Good’s shooting, 160 members of Congress have issued a letter demanding that the administration “immediately suspend the current surge of federal officers and agents to Minneapolis” and that officials “work with an independent agency to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the course of the investigation into this reprehensible event.” Earlier in the month, 30 U.S. senators issued a letter that condemned the administration for endangering communities by pulling law enforcement resources from actual public safety threats – such as  child exploitation, human trafficking, and fentanyl smuggling – in order to “indiscriminately deport noncitizens without criminal records.”

“Redirecting these investigators to pad deportation statistics is not simply irresponsible — it is a dereliction of duty with life-or-death consequences that puts the safety of our children in jeopardy,” senators wrote. “No modern administration has ever attempted a reallocation of this scale or recklessness.”

In New Jersey, state legislators advanced a package of bills “targeting local cooperation with federal immigration agents and expanding protections for immigrants,” the New Jersey Monitor reported.

“The package of bills includes legislation to codify the Immigrant Trust Directive, an attorney general order that limits cooperation between federal immigration authorities and New Jersey law enforcement,” the report said. “The bill would bar police officers from engaging in ‘racially influenced policing,’ like stopping someone based on their suspected citizenship status; require agencies to develop procedures for certain visa requests; and mandate that prosecutors inform criminal defendants of immigration consequences of some charges and convictions.”

In another sign of how ICE’s abuses against U.S. citizens and immigrant neighbors alike have become one of the most pressing issues facing our nation today, the topic also took center stage during Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, where presenter Wanda Sykes and attendees wore pins “to honor Renee Macklin Good and Keith Porter while also reminding us what it means to be good to one another in the face of such horror – to be a good citizen, neighbor, friend, ally and human,” the “Be Good” campaign said.

“Of course this is for the mother who was murdered by an ICE agent, and it’s really sad,” Sykes said. “I know people are out marching and all today, and we need to speak up.”

“From the hundreds of protests and rallies across the nation to the array of state and federal bills and legislative accountability being introduced and discussed, it’s clear that the outrage in response to Ms. Good’s killing and the abuse and violence it embodies is widespread and growing,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Americans from all walks of life are recognizing the mass deportation agenda has gone way too far and this administration is engaged in an unchecked pattern of abuse, violence and impunity. Yet, beyond ICE reform and accountability, we must also work to define, and enact a broader alternative vision of our immigration system that upholds instead of subverts American values.”

 “Putting a foot back in Venezuela means I will be taken to jail, tortured, and potentially killed”

Despite fostering further instability in Venezuela by carrying out an “illegal military operation” that deposed Nicolás Maduro and has left in its deadly wake major questions about the Latin American nation’s future governance, the U.S. is so far refusing to reinstate temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants who have had permission to live and work in the U.S. but may now fear being returned to continued chaos and instability.

The Department of Homeland Security “on Sunday defended the administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, despite concerns about chaos unfolding in their home country following Nicolás Maduro’s capture,” Axios reported. During an interview with Fox News, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that “Venezuela today is more free than it was yesterday,” and that “every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status.”

But Juan Escalante, an immigrant rights advocate who was born in Venezuela and fled to the U.S. following the rise of Hugo Chavez, called this a “bait-and-switch” tactic that may offer no relief to the approximately 600,000 Venezuelan nationals who have been protected by TPS. That’s because only individuals who are currently outside the U.S. can apply for refugee status, which the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged following Noem’s remarks, NOTUS reported. “Applicants are only eligible for refugee status prior to entering the country,” a spokesperson said.

However, the U.S. has also slashed refugee admissions to a record-low and left the few remaining slots to white South Africans who’ve been singled out for special treatment. While the vetting process for refugees can take up to 36 months, the first Afrikaner arrivals deplaned “on a chartered flight in May, a remarkably quick turnaround given that families from other nations often wait years for their chance to be vetted and brought to the United States,” The New York Times reported in October.

Nor is the asylum system a viable option for Venezuelan TPS holders looking for legal pathways to remain in the U.S. “Venezuelans are currently limited from asylum as well,” NOTUS continued. “U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services has put on hold all applications for legal status for immigrants from 39 countries, including Venezuela.”

Sebastian, a Venezuelan immigrant and TPS holder who asked to be identified by his first name only, told NPR that he initially welcomed the news of Maduro’s removal from power. But he said his relief quickly turned to worry when he heard about U.S. plans to work with Maduro’s right-hand person and interim president, NPR said. Sebastian, an architect who calls Miami home, “said he feels the danger is still as present in Venezuela.”

“The Trump administration has been saying for a year the conditions have changed for good in Venezuela,” Sebastian said. “But I would ask, if the U.S. has to extract a man who took over the government, how am I supposed to believe that the situation in Venezuela is good? It’s contradictory, I see the opposite — the situation is worse.” Luis Falcón, another immigrant who at one time worked as a Venezuelan presidential honor guard but fled the country after becoming critical of the country’s leadership, similarly feels unsafe to return.

In Philadelphia, Noem’s comments only fueled confusion among Venezuelan community members, 6abc Action News reported. “Community leaders said the secretary’s statement led some Venezuelans to believe they could apply for refugee status while their country’s future remains in question. ‘That was a path of hope for many people. There are many Venezuelans now in limbo,’ said Emilio Buitrago, co-founder of Casa de Venezuela.”

“Those who hoped that no traces of the regime would remain have been confronted with the fact that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as acting president on Monday,” as America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings noted in her latest column. “In other words, Maduro’s regime is still in place.”

Rather than acknowledging that the conditions that merited the implementation of Venezuelan TPS in the first place have not changed –  in fact, explosions and gunfire have been reported in Caracas since the U.S. incursion – the administration’s overall message has been that these contributors and neighbors simply just get out and “go home.”

“The great news for those who are here from Venezuela on temporary protected status is that now they can go home with hope for their country — a country that they love — that there is going to be peace, prosperity and stability,” said the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Homeland Security. “USCIS encourages all Venezuelans unlawfully in the U.S. to use the CBP Home app for help with a safe and orderly return to their country,” said an agency spokesperson.

“Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans and now they can go home to a country that they love,” stated a social media post from Homeland Security.

TPS has historically been a humanitarian tool allowing individuals who can’t return to their home countries due to extraordinary circumstances, such as armed conflict or civil war, to live and work in the U.S. But after taking power last year, “Trump administration officials moved to end TPS protection for Venezuelans, a decision the Supreme Court has allowed to stand for now as litigation continues,” The NY Times reported.

“Washington, D.C., will rapidly find itself in a tough spot if credible plans do not materialize for Venezuela, the country, and Venezuelan immigrants in the United States,” Escalante continued in his piece. “A reminder that the Trump Administration, while being credited with Maduro’s downfall, is the same administration that sent Venezuelan men fleeing Maduro’s Venezuela to a gulag in El Salvador.” In her column, Hastings wrote that “the fact is that throughout this process, little has been said about restoring democracy or protecting human rights. Rather, the talk has been about seizing Venezuelan oil and portraying Venezuela as the main exporter of drugs to the United States, even though it is not. A recent United Nations report ranks Venezuela as a marginal country on the drug trafficking route.”

For former presidential palace guard Falcón, “returning now is impossible,” NPR continued. “Putting a foot back in Venezuela means I will be taken to jail, tortured, and potentially killed,” he said.

During a time when those standing at the bully pulpit seek only to divide and instill fear about immigrants who call the United States their home, it’s important that we remember that we’re talking about people, all of whom have their own unique stories, perspectives, hopes and contributions to the communities that have welcomed them.

It’s the main message of this year’s International Migrants Day, which is observed every Dec. 18 and recognizes migrants all around the world. This year’s theme, “My Great Story: Cultures and Development,” seeks to highlight “how human mobility drives growth, enriches societies, and helps communities connect, adapt, and support one another,” said the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. “In 2025, this message is more urgent than ever as migration continues to shape economies, communities, and global development.”

Here in the United States, Desange Kuenihira is among former refugees working to instill hope in individuals who are facing hardships in their own home countries today. Kuenihira knows first-hand what they’re experiencing and feeling, after she fled deadly conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and sheltered in a Ugandan refugee camp before being resettled in Utah. 

“The experience was arduous and could have broken anyone,” Kuenihira wrote for USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. “But in the face of all this, I discovered a strength within myself that I didn’t know existed. I realized that resilience isn’t just about surviving—it’s about thriving in spite of the obstacles, about finding hope in even the darkest moments.”

“Adapting to a new life was not easy,” she continued. “The differences in culture, customs and even day-to-day expectations were daunting. But each challenge taught me something valuable. It taught me how to be resourceful, how to be patient, and how to stay hopeful in the face of adversity.” She’s transformed that adversity into unDEfeated, her non-profit uplifting “Uganda’s most vulnerable by enhancing education for underprivileged youth, and providing support for families, and single working mothers.”

Now an American citizen, Kuenihira also authored “Undefeated Woman,” a memoir “chronicling her refugee journey from the daily struggles of life in a refugee camp in Uganda to resettling in the United States,” USA for UNHCR said. Earlier this year, Desange was also named USA for UNHCR’s 2025 Refugee Storyteller Celebration winner, and was a World Refugee Day featured storyteller.

The more than three million refugees who, like Kuenihira, who have been resettled in the U.S. since 1975 do so much more than enrich our country with their aspirations and traditions, they enrich it literally. One Health and Human Services study from 2024 found that refugees and asylees are net contributors to the U.S. economy, paying an estimated $581 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal economies. “They contributed an estimated $363 billion to the federal government through payroll, income, and excise taxes, and $218 billion to state and local governments, through income, sales, and property taxes.”

Refugees also “enter the workforce at high rates, often filling labor shortages in critical industries,” the International Rescue Committee said earlier this year, and strengthen communities through their resilience and skills. “In cities like Buffalo, NY, and Fargo, ND, refugee entrepreneurs have revitalized entire neighborhoods, turning abandoned storefronts into thriving small businesses that create jobs and boost local economies.”

In fact, immigration overall benefits all of us. Immigrants are natural-born entrepreneurs who outpace U.S.-born Americans when it comes to starting a small business. Immigrant-led businesses employed nearly eight million Americans, according to data from the New American Economy. Immigrant entrepreneurs have been a critical component of our nation’s economic growth, boasting $1.3 trillion in total sales, said the New American Economy. And, future GDP growth depends on neighbors like Delinec Fernández, a Venezuelan immigrant who also now calls Indiana her home and established the state’s first Venezuelan bakery. 

Sweet Deli Venezuelan Bakery got its start as a way to bring in some income during the COVID-19 pandemic, she told BORGEN Magazine. “Today, the bakery serves not only as a cultural bridge but also as an economic engine.”

“Migration has always been a force that binds the world together,” UN Women said ahead of International Migrants Day. “Across borders and generations, the movement of people has driven cultural exchange, strengthened communities, and energized economies. At the heart of this story are women.”

“Whether migrating themselves, supporting loved ones from afar, or adapting to the changes migration brings to their households, women play a vital and often invisible role. Their earnings sustain families. Their care work supports entire communities. Their leadership helps societies adapt and flourish.”

“As we mark this day, UN Women honours the strength, leadership, and courage of migrant women and girls everywhere,” the statement continued. “Their stories are stories of hope, transformation, and global connection. Their contributions are essential — to families, communities, and the shared future we are building together.”