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April 11- 12 Forum at Rutgers Newark
“BREAKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: REFLECTIONS ON THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE”
(NEWARK) - “I was still hysterical when the guards brought me to my cell. My cellmate was a Latina woman who didn’t speak English. I didn’t know what to do, so I just started praying that the Lord would take me out of there, and then my cellmate started praying in Spanish. And there we were, neither of us understanding what the other was saying, but praying that our nightmares would end.” These are the words of Rutgers-Newark senior Sharon Nyantekyi, who describes having been held for three weeks in Middlesex County Jail and Elizabeth Detention Center without ever being formally charged. Nyantekyi, native of Ghana and a resident of Somerset, N.J., since the age of six, is a political science major. She returned to campus March 20.
Organizers at Rutgers-Newark plan an April 11-April 12 program, “Breaking The American Promise: Reflections On The Immigration Debate,” to discuss proposed new immigration legislation now being debated by the U.S. Congress. Legal analysts say HR 4437, "Border Protection Anti-terrorism and Illegal immigration Act”, or the "Sensenbrenner" Act, would criminalize undocumented immigrants' and their allies.
“We hope this participatory program will provide a forum in which New Jersey's large immigrant and Latino(a) communities can learn about the legislation and participate in this vital national debate ,” explains Laura Lomas, assistant professor of American literature at R-N and one of the program’s organizers. “We believe this meeting will help to spearhead a broader educational campaign about this legislation and to encourage students to get involved in working with local immigrant communities,” notes Magdalena Barbosa, a Rutgers Law School-Newark student and another of the organizers.
A Community Forum and Debate will take place on Tuesday, April 11, from 4-6 p.m. at Rutgers Law School, 123 Washington St., Newark. Panelists discussing this proposal will be: Nyantekyi; New Mexican novelist Demetria Martinez; Amy Gottlieb, Legal Director of the Immigrant Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee; and Esther Chavez, a community organizer who works to support the human and civil rights of day laborers in New Jersey.
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On Wednesday, April 12, from 2:30-4 p.m. in the Dana Room, 4th floor, Dana Library, 185 University Ave, Newark, Martinez will read from her recent work, Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005) and award-winning poet Rachel Hadas, Board of Governors Professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, will respond. Asela R. Laguna, chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and leading scholar in Hispanic literatures, will hostthe discussion.
Demetria Martínez’ award-winning novel, Mother Tongue, is based in part upon Martinez's 1988 trial for conspiracy against the U.S. government in connection with transporting Salvadoran refugees into the country, a charge that carried a 25-year prison sentence and a $1.25 million dollar fine. A reporter at the time covering the Sanctuary Movement, she was found not guilty on First Amendment grounds. She is active with Enlace Comunitario, an immigrants rights group that serves Spanish-speaking victims of domestic violence. She is a graduate of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
A 1996 graduate of Rutgers Law School, Amy Gottlieb has represented intending immigrants in family-based petitions and applicants for asylum. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Immigration and Nationality Subcommittee and the National Lawyers Guild National Immigration Project, and is a recipient of the Richard J. Hughes Public Interest Award from Seton Hall Law School. She is a board member of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network.
Esther Chavez is a community organizer who actively supports the human and civil rights of day laborers in New Jersey. The El Salvador native has decades of experience working with numerous community organizations.
CONTACT: For more information, please contact Laura Lomas, at llomas@andromeda.rutgers.edu , 973-353-5279 x519, or Nathan Fishman, at nfishman@pegasus.rutgers.edu.
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