Article by: Jennie Belle, Immigration and Farmworkers Director Did you miss our webinar, ““Loving Our Neighbors in a New Administration?” If so, please watch the one-hour video below to learn ways to protect immigrants and refugees in the wake of new, harmful federal legislation as well as possible anti-immigrant threats at a state and local level. This webinar begins with updates from Christy Williams and Jill Marie Bussey of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network about Trump’s recent executive orders and the impacts they could have, as well as trends that we are seeing in legislation at the state level. Next, David Fraccaro of FaithAction International House offers six concrete ways you and your congregation can speak out and take action alongside our newest immigrant and refugee neighbors. Finally, even if you did not participate in the webinar the first time, we ask you to fill out a short survey if you are interested in being involved in local coalitions working together across differences to protect immigrants and refugees. Please watch, share, and take action because protecting the rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees, keeping their families intact, making the United States into a welcoming place for all migrants requires all of us working together to take action. Note: The video is subtitled with Spanish subtitles so please feel free to share with Spanish-speaking friends and neighbors. El video está subtitulado con subtítulos en español así que comparte con amigos y vecinos de hispanohablantes.

Article by: Aleta Payne, Deputy Executive Director

The Council has had a busy weekend. Much of the staff was helping with the Beyond Gun Violence Conference at United Church of Chapel Hill, but we also had folks at the Duke Divinity School event on embodying sanctuary. Both had been in the works for some time but occurred, by chance, on the heels of President Trump’s series of executive actions related to immigration and refugees (at least some of which were blocked by a federal judge on Saturday night).

The contrast between the priorities of those who attended the two conferences and the President’s decisions are stark.

As people of faith, our commitment to a peaceful, beloved community inspires our work to reduce gun violence and address the false notion that gun ownership inherently make us safer. We also believe in the call to welcome the immigrant and to care for the vulnerable, including refugees fleeing unimaginable hardship and violence in their countries.

As Americans, we are exponentially more likely to be killed by another American with a gun than by a terrorist. Yet some of the elected officials who appear comfortable with President Trump’s actions have ties to the corporate gun lobby that has short-circuited the most basic and reasonable efforts to prevent tragedies like the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

If politicians genuinely want to keep us safe, they might start by standing up to the gun and ammunition manufacturers who have blocked common-sense legislation for too long. It is easy to marginalize and scapegoat the vulnerable. It takes leadership to stand up to the powerful and moneyed.

Last week’s election has left a lot of people filled with anxiety and uncertainty, especially our brothers and sisters who immigrated here. Millions of people who have come here from other countries or whose families did so, often because they were fleeing violence and persecution, are in imminent danger. Immigration reform was one of the