🗽😎👍🏼🇺🇸ASYLUMWORKS ANNOUNCES WAITLIST CAMPAIGN: “It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless when the world is full of bad news. But right here, in our own backyard, we can make a difference for thousands of people who are working to rebuild their lives.“ — YES, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS!😎

 

AsylumWorks

2w

Announcing Waitlist Zero! 📣 👏

AsylumWorks has been growing at a rapid pace to meet the growing demand for our services – if you’ve seen the news in recent months, you’ll know why. The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, the devastating war in Ukraine, and the humanitarian crises at the Southern border have brought an influx of innocent people seeking safety to our region. They join the over 50,000 asylum seekers already living in Washington D.C. Metro regions fleeing violence and persecution in their own countries.

As the need grows, our client waitlist grows, too. For those individuals and families, the vast majority of whom do not qualify for resettlement services, a waitlist is a place full of uncertainty, a place where basic needs are not easily met – if they’re met at all.

To address our waitlist of 150+ people, we’re launching Waitlist Zero: From Surviving to Thriving. Our goal is to raise $50,000 over the next four weeks to help significantly reduce the length of time our clients spend on the waitlist to receive Asylum Works’ services and support.

Over the next four weeks, we’ll be sharing storiesj – stories of our clients’ experiences both on and off the waitlist; stories of their journey to AsylumWorks; stories of success. Each and every one of these stories you’ll read were made possible only through your support.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless when the world is full of bad news. But right here, in our own backyard, we can make a difference for thousands of people who are working to rebuild their lives. Waitlist Zero’s intent is to move these people from a place of basic survival to a place where they can grow, where they have access to our vast network of partners and resources, where they can start their second chance.

A place where they can thrive.

👉 Ready to help? Here’s how: Share this message on your page or donate directly to our campaign!

bit.ly/WaitlistZeroAW

#asylumseekers #donate #asylum #WaitlistZeroAW #afghanistancrisis #ukrainewar #refugeeswelcome

 

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Joan Hodges Wu
Joan Hodges Wu
Founder & Executive Director
AsylumWorks

Thanks, Joan, my good friend, for all that you and your multi-talented team do for humanity over at AsylumWorks!

A contribution to AsylumWorks Waitlist Zero would be a great way to celebrate “Flag Day” by showing what really makes America great! DO IT AT THE ABVOVE LINK!

🇺🇸Due Process Forever!

PWS

🤯GARLAND, MAYORKAS SLAM-DUNKED BY NGOs ON SEMI-FRIVOLOUS DEFENSE OF TRUMP’S CRUEL, ☠️⚰️ ILLEGAL WORK DENIAL FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS! — AsylumWorks v. Marorkas, D.D.C.😎⚔️⚖️

Joan Hodges Wu
Joan Hodges Wu
Founder & Executive Director
AsylumWorks — The “lead plaintiff” in this case. Joan is a true NDPA “Warrior Queen.”⚔️👸🏼

Dan Kowalski reports for Lexis/Nexis:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/immigration/b/insidenews/posts/court-vacates-two-trump-era-rules-that-denied-work-authorization-to-asylum-seekers

Court Vacates Two Trump-Era Rules That Denied Work Authorization To Asylum Seekers

NIJC, Feb. 8, 2022

“A federal court ruled that two rules issued by the Trump administration restricting — and in some cases eliminating — access to work authorization for asylum seekers were illegally issued and are therefore invalid.

More than a year ago, a group of nearly 20 asylum seekers along with three organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) challenging these rules. The individual asylum seekers include transgender women, parents with small children, and children and adults who fled political persecution, gender-based violence, or gang and drug-cartel violence. The rules prevented or delayed their access to a work permit. The organizational plaintiffs — AsylumWorks, the Tahirih Justice Center, and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto — argued that the rules derailed their missions to provide employment assistance and legal and social services to asylum seekers.

The National Immigrant Justice Center, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Kids in Need of Defense, and Tahirih Justice Center provided counsel in the case.

Plaintiffs challenged the substantive provisions that drastically curtailed access to work authorization, and they argued that the rules were invalid because purported Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf issued them even though he was not lawfully installed as DHS Secretary. The rules took effect in August 2020 and were partially enjoined by a different court in September 2020, but that decision left many of the rules’ harmful provisions in place. Despite these ongoing harms and despite a change in administration, the government dragged its feet arguing that the rules should remain in place “for the time being” to allow “developing administrative actions” to resolve the case.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia refused to entertain these delay requests, and rejected the government’s “interpretative acrobatics” to justify Mr. Wolf’s purported authority to engage in rulemaking. Instead, the court followed numerous other courts around the country and concluded that “Wolf’s ascension to the office of Acting Secretary was unlawful.” The court also rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to ratify one of the rules in question, reasoning that the ratification “did not cure the defects … caused by Wolf’s unlawful tenure as Acting Secretary.”

Reflections from Counsel and Organizational Plaintiffs:

“The ability to earn an income is critical to asylum seekers’ ability to survive in the United States as they pursue protection from persecution,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “The court’s decision recognizes that the government cannot neglect to fill a cabinet position with a Senate-approved candidate for 665 days and then rely on unvetted, temporary officials to strip asylum seekers of access to a livelihood in the United States.”

“The court got it right,” said Annie Daher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. “People seeking asylum should be treated with dignity and fairness as they pursue their legal claims. Access to work permits allows asylum seekers to provide for their families, obtain vital legal representation, and ultimately find safety and security in the United States. Today’s ruling will make a life-saving difference for our plaintiffs and for all people who turn to this country for refuge.”

“Children seeking asylum often need a USCIS-issued ‘employment authorization’ document as their only form of photo ID, to access education and other services critical to their stability and well-being during the asylum process,” said Scott Shuchart, senior director, legal strategy, at Kids in Need of Defense. “The court correctly restored access to these important documents for, potentially, thousands of unaccompanied children who will now have the opportunity to build a more secure life in the United States as they pursue lifesaving protection.”

“The right to work is an essential component of humanitarian protection,” said Joan Hodges-Wu, executive director and founder of AsylumWorks. “Work is not only imperative to economic survival; it also represents a means for asylum seekers to maintain personal dignity and self-respect during the long and protracted legal process. The court took a critical step toward upholding the rights of asylum seekers by vacating illegally-issued rules created to deter individuals and families seeking safety from harm. We applaud the court’s decision and look forward to continuing our work to help asylum seekers prepare for and retain safe, legal, and purposeful employment.”

“This decision restores the critical ability of countless survivors of gender-based violence to work, and thus be independent and provide for their families, while their asylum applications are pending—a process that often takes many years,” said Richard Caldarone, senior litigation counsel at the Tahirih Justice Center. “It also makes clear that the government remains obligated to promptly decide survivors’ requests for work authorization rather than leaving them in bureaucratic limbo for months or years. The decision takes arbitrary and punitive restrictions on work permanently off the books. We applaud the court’s decision and look forward to its immediate implementation.”

“We are thrilled that our motion for summary judgment was granted. This decision will have an enormous impact on our clients and so many other asylum seekers who come to this country seeking safety and justice,” said Christina Dos Santos, the Immigration Program director at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. “The Trump-era rules were punitive and cruel to asylum seekers, preventing them from receiving the right to work, potentially for years, as they waited to have their cases heard in our backlogged immigration court system. We have seen first hand how these policies forced asylum-seekers and their families into poverty and destitution. A resolution was urgently needed. We applaud the court’s decision.””

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Garland’s poor judgement, legally deficient, ethically questionable defenses of illegal and inhumane Trump-era immigration policies continue to astound! Also, the inane maneuvers conducted by Mayorkas, presumably with Garland’s approval, attempting to illegally “ratify” one of these rules is simply disgraceful! Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell strongly and correctly rejected this flailing waste of Government resources in her opinion.

Chief Judge Howell’s decision describes a compendium of some of the most egregious evasions of rules and wasteful attempts to paper them over, by both the Trump and Biden Administrations, that can be imagined. It’s an appalling example of the failure of Biden’s “good government” pledge! Inflicting this utter nonsense on the Federal Courts and on individuals fighting for their lives and rights, and stretching the resources of their pro bono lawyers, is on Garland! It’s inexcusable!

Alfred E. Neumann
Has Alfred E. Neumann been “reborn” as Judge Merrick Garland? 
PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons

Congrats to my good friend Joan, AsylumWorks, the Tahirih Justice Center, and all the other great NGOs who are “taking it to” Garland and and his flailing Justice Department as well as to Mayorkas and his lousy, inept, illegal gimmicks being used to “shore up” grotesquely cruel and unfair Trump policies that Biden & Harris were elected to change! Gotta wonder what Ur Mendoza Jaddou and other folks who were supposed to “just say no” to these disgraceful policies are doing over at DHS!

Here’s what Joan said about the case:

WE WON! 🗽 The court ruled in AsylumWorks’ favor and struck down a series of Trump era rules that significantly delayed – and in many cases outright denied – work permits for asylum seekers.Today, justice prevailed.

 

🇺🇸Due process Forever!

Best,

Joan Hodges-Wu, MA, LGSW
Founder & Executive Director  | AsylumWorks

Justice DID indeed prevail! That’s thanks to you, Joan, your fellow NGOs, and some great pro bono lawyers who showed that despite campaign promises, true “justice” for all persons under our Constitution resides elsewhere than at our flawed and failing Department of “Justice” under Garland’s uninspired and often tone deaf “leadership.”  

🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!

PWS

02-08-22

🇺🇸⚖️🗽😎SUPPORT ASYLUMWORKS: Give A  Mother’s Day “Gift of Goodness” that Supports Asylum-Seeking Moms!

AsylumWorks

AsylumWorks

Joan Hodges Wu
Joan Hodges Wu
Founder & Executive Director
AsylumWorks

A  Mother’s Day “Gift of Goodness” that Supports Asylum-Seeking Moms

For an entire year, COVID-19 has disrupted work and home life and moms have been stretched so thin – acting as caregivers, teachers, and earners, often all at the same time. 

Asylum-seeking moms have been particularly impacted. After overcoming tremendous obstacles to be reunited with their children or to bring their families to safety, these women are now forced to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic without the support network of extended family or friends. With the rise of xenophobia and the slumping of the U.S. economy, many asylum-seeking mothers and families have been forced into isolation and destitution – ineligible to receive government assistance while they wait for the backlog of asylum claims to be processed. 

As many of us know, when asylum seekers are unable to meet their basic needs, they often struggle to retain or work with legal representation. It can be hard to focus on writing a personal statement or gathering evidence when you don’t know where your next paycheck will come from or how you will put food on the table for your children.

That is where nonprofit organizations, like AsylumWorks, come in. Founded in 2016 by a frustrated social worker who saw underlying gaps in assistance for asylum seekers,  AsylumWorks provides asylum seekers and their families with holistic services and support to complement the work of legal representation. In 2020 alone, AsylumWorks served over 370 asylum seekers – providing trauma-informed social services, employment assistance, and community building to help asylum seekers rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose. Because they work to connect asylum seekers to a network of support, their clients are dramatically more likely to win their asylum cases. 

This year, AsylumWorks wants to celebrate and support mothers and caregivers in the asylum-seeking community who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. That’s why they’ve recently launched a Mother’s Day Campaign in collaboration with Immigrant Food (a cause-casual restaurant in DC). Their “gifts of goodness” can be purchased and sent to a mother in your life or donated to one of the hundreds of asylum-seeking moms they work with. 

Funds raised will go directly to supporting holistic, trauma-informed programs for asylum-seekers like Berhanu, a 38-year-old Ethiopian mother and political activist. After being beaten within inches of her life, a pregnant Berhanu fled her country to seek asylum in the United States. Upon arrival, she found herself alone with a newborn son, struggling to navigate a new country, a global pandemic, and a complicated legal system. Working together, AsylumWorks brought Berhanu into their employment program to re-enter the workforce, connected her with a doctor to treat her son’s medical condition, and referred her to a private immigration firm that agreed to give her a generous client discount. Berhanu and her son are now stable and live in Virginia. Despite COVID-19, they continue to attend AsylumWorks’s virtual community-building events to meet new friends as they await their pending cases.  

Berahu is one of the hundreds of thousands of asylum-seeking mothers who deserve to feel seen and appreciated this Mother’s Day. If you are moved by the work of AsylumWorks, consider purchasing one of these unique gifts of goodness. Pre-orders are available throughout the month of April. For more information, or to purchase a gift of goodness, please visit https: //www.mothersday.asylumworks.org/

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Great organization; great cause!

And, speaking of “women who move us forward and inspire us,” Joan Hodges Wu and her friend and colleague Professor Lindsay Muir Harris of UDC are certainly two of the most notable in that category! Thanks for all you do, my friends!

Professor Lindsay Muir Harris
Professor Lindsay Muir Harris
UDC Law

 

Due Process Forever!🇺🇸⚖️🗽

PWS

04-14-21

⚖️🗽JOAN HODGES WU, 🦸‍♀️😇EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ASYLUMWORKS, SPEAKS OUT ON NEW SUITS TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM FURTHER ABUSE BY THE KAKISTOCRACY🤮☠️⚰️🏴‍☠️👎🏻! 

Joan Hodges Wu
Joan Hodges Wu
Founder & Executive Director
AsylumWorks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Tara Tidwell Cullen, NIJC, ttidwellcullen@heartlandalliance.org, (312) 833-2967
Asylum Seekers and Service Providers Sue Trump Administration

to Stop Rules that Block Access to Work Permits

WASHINGTON, D.C.(December 23, 2020) — A group of asylum seekers and immigrant services organizations are suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), purported Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, and purported Acting DHS General Counsel Chad Mizelle to vacate two rules that have drastically curtailed access to work authorization and identity documentation for people who flee to the United States and apply for asylum protection. The new rules, in effect since August, force asylum seekers to wait years for their cases to move through the backlogged immigration system before they may lawfully earn an income.

“These rules were one cruel part of the Trump administration’s continuous efforts throughout its single term in office to dismantle the United States’ commitment to provide refuge to people fleeing persecution,” said Keren Zwick, litigation director for the National Immigrant Justice Center, which is co-counsel in the case. “These particular rules betray so much of what our country is supposed to value; they try to deter asylum seekers from coming at all and deprive those who make it here of the means to support themselves and their families.”

The rules bar asylum applicants from receiving work permits for at least a year after they file their asylum applications and prevent some individuals from working for the entire duration of their cases — often several years.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Kids in Need of Defense also are providing co-counsel in the case, representing 14 individuals and three organizational plaintiffs before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The individual plaintiffs in the case are asylum seekers, including transgender women and parents with small children, who fled political persecution, gender-based violence, or gang and drug-cartel violence and are prevented under the new rules from receiving work permits. Three organizational plaintiffs — AsylumWorks, Tahirih Justice Center, and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto — say the new rules threaten to derail their missions to provide employment assistance and legal and social services to asylum seekers. Asylum seekers’ ability to earn an income is critical for them to be able to pursue their legal cases and meet basic needs such as housing and mental and medical healthcare, and to avoid falling victim to human trafficking or other exploitation. Furthermore, in many states, work permits are the only identification documentation asylum seekers receive until they are granted protection.

“This lawsuit is about upholding basic human dignity,” said Joan Hodges-Wu, founder and executive director of AsylumWorks, lead plaintiff in the case. “Asylum seekers are simply looking for a fair shake — the chance to work, pay for their own housing, feed and clothe their families. Our asylum system should be rooted in justice and compassion. Instead, this policy forces future Americans — many of whom have already escaped unspeakable hardship — into further danger and depravity. This is a crisis the Trump Administration is determined to make worse. Denying the right to work for one year means unnecessarily delaying the time before asylum seekers can become productive, tax-paying members of the workforce, and denying our country vital frontline workers willing to risk their lives at this critical time.”

“These rules will force courageous survivors of violence into dangerously precarious living situations, needlessly compounding their suffering. They will also make it significantly more difficult for asylum seekers to afford legal representation, which we know can make a life-saving difference in these cases, and to sustain themselves and their families while they seek protection,” said Annie Daher, staff attorney at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, co-counsel in the case. “The rules will undoubtedly result in refugees being wrongly denied asylum and ordered deported to the very dangers they have fled.”

In its comments to the Federal Register, the Trump administration said that governments should take responsibility for individuals who may be harmed by the rule, stating that asylum seekers who may become homeless as a result of the rule changes should  “become familiar with the homelessness resources provided by the state where they intend to reside.”

The plaintiffs ask the district court to vacate the proposed rules, arguing the rules violate U.S. laws and that the government did not provide adequate rationale for the harm the rules would cause. The lawsuit also argues that Wolf was not validly serving in that role when the agency issued the rules and Mizelle was no longer validly serving in that role when he signed the rules. Federal courts have already found that Wolf was not lawfully appointed to his position when he enacted other harmful immigration rules, including the administration’s failed attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Additional plaintiffs in the case offered the following statements:

Richard Caldarone, litigation counsel, Tahirih Justice Center: “Instead of allowing those fleeing violence and persecution to live their lives while they pursue relief in the United States, the government has deliberately chosen to condemn survivors and other asylum seekers to lengthy periods of homelessness, food insecurity, and unnecessary poverty. There are many understandable reasons why survivors of violence may wait more than a year to apply for asylum – including the need to heal from trauma or the need to avoid reliving painful memories. Our immigration system must uphold the right for survivors to work while their cases continue, rather than slamming the door shut to safety.”

Misha Seay, Managing Attorney, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto: “These rules are a cruel attempt at forcing asylum seekers into poverty and homelessness if they choose to move forward with their asylum claims and wait for their day in court, which in some cases may take years. Asylum seekers will be stuck in a catch-22 of being unable to afford an attorney to help them apply for a work permit and seek asylum, and unable to lawfully work and earn a living so that they can afford to hire an attorney,” says Misha Seay, Managing Attorney at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. “Our government’s commitment to providing protection to those fleeing persecution cannot be fulfilled if we make their everyday life impossible while they navigate that process.”

###

 

The National Immigrant Justice Center is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a unique combination of direct services, policy reform, impact litigation, and public education.

Read this statement on NIJC’s website

NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER
224 S. Michigan Avenue, Suite 600 | Chicago, Illinois 60604
immigrantjustice.org

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Thanks, Joan, my friend and a true hero of the NDPA, for speaking out and taking action to fight the “crimes against humanity” that continue to be committed by the kakistocracy and their baggage handlers on their way out the door!

Under Joan’s dynamic and courageous leadership, AsylumWorks has been providing support and community assistance services to asylum seekers in the D.C. area for several years. She has now expanded her organization’s mission to include impact litigation to protect and enhance the human dignity and the human rights of asylum seekers!

Check out AsylumWorks and their great programs (and contribute to this most worthy cause) at their website here:

https://asylumworks.org/

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽🇺🇸

PWS

12-23-20

WASHPOST: PROFESSOR LINDSAY MUIR HARRIS OF UDC LAW & JOAN HODGES WU OF THE ASYLUM SEEKERS ASSISTANCE PROJECT (“ASAP”) SPEAK OUT AGAINST TRUMP’S LATEST CRUEL & COUNTERPRODUCTIVE ATTACK ON VULNERABLE ASYLUM SEEKERS!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/05/01/asylum-seekers-leave-everything-behind-theres-no-way-they-can-pay-trumps-fee/?utm_term=.f48b5ca8c238

Lindsay & Joan write:

On Monday evening, President Trump issued a memointended to make life more difficult for those seeking asylum in the United States. The memo calls for regulations that, among other things, require asylum seekers to pay a fee to apply for asylum and their first work permit, and denies work permits to immigrants who entered the United States without inspection, or “illegally.”

Since the creation of our asylum system, after the United States signed the Protocol to the Refugee Convention in 1968 and enacted its own Refugee Act in 1980, there has never been a fee to apply for asylum. Filing for asylum is free for a reason under U.S. law and in the vast majority of other countries: Seeking asylum is a human right.

There are already plenty of obstacles and limits to that right in our existing immigration system. For instance, asylum seekers have to wait to receive permission to legally work in the United States. Congress codified a waiting period for work permits for asylum seekers in 1996. Asylum seekers can apply for a work permit 150 days after they have submitted an application for asylum. The work permit is issued sometime after 180 days.

Introducing a fee to apply for asylum and to apply for the first work permit not only is cruel but also goes against common sense and U.S. economic interests. Asylum seekers typically cannot afford to pay even a nominal fee. Trump’s memo does not specify the fee amount, only that it would “cover the cost of adjudication.” But even the rumored $50 fee would be too high for any of our clients. All individuals present in the United States have a legal right to apply for asylum, and that legal right should not depend on ability to pay. Many asylum seekers flee their countries with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and the cash in their pockets. Other asylum seekers come with their life savings, which are often quickly depleted as they pay for living expenses awaiting adjudication of their asylum claims.

Years ago, one of us worked with one client who was homeless and lived in her car while she waited for her day in court. One of our current clients lives in a public storage locker because he cannot afford to pay rent. We have asylum-seeking clients who go hungry so that their children can eat, or who drink water to “feel full.” Other clients go without medication to treat chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure because they lack health insurance and money to pay out of pocket for their medications. Asylum seekers are not a population with an ability to pay extraneous fees.

This new fee would also put asylum seekers further at risk of being exploited, or even physically harmed, abused or trafficked within the United States. Asylum seekers are already vulnerable to such predatory behavior. For example, years ago, one of us worked with a young woman from Niger who fled a forced marriage and female genital mutilation. As an asylum seeker in the United States, she had no way to provide for herself and found herself passed from one abusive situation to another. By the time she filed her asylum application, she had been repeatedly raped, held captive and forced to work in various homes. She was providing free child-care in exchange for lodging but forbidden from leaving the house.

And contrary to some misconceptions among the public (and the Trump administration), asylum seekers are generally ineligible for any form of federal or state aid. Indeed, even after they are granted asylum, they do not receive significant support from the government. Between paying for rent, food and other living expenses, and not being able to work for a significant period of time, how will asylum seekers pay the fee?

Asylum seekers, who have lost everything and been forced to leave their countries and start over in ours, have a tremendous amount to give to our communities if given the chance. Take Constance, for example, one of our West African clients. In 2015, while she was seeking asylum, she commuted two hours by bus each way to a factory to cut fruit during a 12-hour overnight shift. She now works as a French language newscaster for a major news and radio outlet. Another client is a microbiologist who worked waiting tables until he found a job directing a lab at a hospital. As one of our clients said: “I know I’ve lost my country, but I haven’t lost my skills. I can still contribute.” Requiring these individuals to remain idle while jobs go unfilled and immigration court and asylum office backlogs persist could mean years in limbo and is a waste of talent, expertise and the hard work asylum seekers contribute.

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My good friends Lindsay and Joan are certainly two of the “good guys” — true role models for the “New Due Process Army.”
They have devoted their professional lives to making America a fairer and better place and helping the most vulnerable among us to have a fair shot at asylum and to contribute their full talents to our society. A terrific “win-win” for us and for asylum seekers. And they both work on “shoestring budgets” — giving much and asking little — just like the refugees they are helping!
What if we had a Government that recognized, honored, and worked with such talented folks to solve problems? Imagine what we could achieve with cooperation and positive efforts, involving real expertise from those who actually know and work with asylum seekers, and who therefore recognize asylum seekers as fellow human beings and great potential assets to our country?
PWS
05-03-19

GOOD NEWS CORNER: SEE THE ANIMATED VIDEO OF HOW THE AMAZING JOAN HODGES WU & HER ASYLUM SEEKER ASSISTANCE PROJECT (“ASAP”) ARE DOING SPECTACULAR THINGS TO CONNECT OUR NEWEST RESIDENTS AND THEIR LIFE SKILLS WITH OUR COMMUNITY! — Talk About A Low Budget, High Results Win – Win!

This is Joan, and here’s the ASAP video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQbcohzT_U0

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Joan Hodges Wu is an amazing person — a bundle of intellectual power, creativity, endless optimism, energy, inspiration, common sense, compassion, and understanding. She literally “electrifies” any room she enters — a natural leader and role model.

Her organization, ASAP, which I have personally visited to have lunch with the group, is equally amazing. First, there are the amazing community volunteers, of all ages and from all walks of life. And then, the amazing asylum seekers: Impressively accomplished people like the Ethiopian gentleman in the video.

They were successful businesspeople, teachers, students, agriculturists, merchants, government officials, scientists, computer engineers, health care professionals, and many others, from many different countries and cultures, who were making good lives in their home countries but were forced to flee by powers over which they had no control. Now, they want to contribute their skills and become integral parts of our communities and help insure that they, their children, and all members of the American community will continue to flourish in the future.

Often, all that is standing in the way is the need for “cultural translation” — the ability to understand how to approach employers, neighbors, government officials, teachers and others in the community and to understand how their skills and experiences might best be used.  They also seek to understand the resources available to help them fit in and contribute. No government agency or NGO currently provides this information. That’s where Joan and her network of volunteers, religious groups, and other volunteers come in. They fill the gap and create success stories.

ASAP does all of this on a shoestring budget. A dollar seems to go further when it is used to unleash human kindness and caring and when the grateful “target group” is willing to contribute and give back to others themselves.

Imagine what our world and our communities could be like if we spent more on projects like ASAP? What if we recognized, valued, and utilized the humanity of all people, not just a selected few? What if we worked together to solve problems rather than attempting to impose futile non-solutions on one segment of our society?

Read more about Joan, ASAP, how you can volunteer, and how you can contribute to the effort here:

https://www.asylumprojectdc.org/

I think it is a real shame that our Government expends so much time and so many resources in a futile attempt to divide us and to punish, de-humanize, and discourage asylum seekers and other migrants. In other words, intentionally creating “lose-lose” situations.

There are lots of good folks out there whose lives we could save and who also could make great contributions to our country. Seems like we’re letting bias and myths blind us to the many “win-wins” there for the taking under wiser, more foresighted, and more humane national leadership.

Perhaps, the “New Due Process Army” will take us to the better places that our generation failed to reach.

 

PWS

08-08-18