People in our community, our Newberg neighbors, are being picked up by immigration enforcement without warrants, detained without charges, and often sent out of state, leaving families and friends in the dark about their whereabouts.
Some call these immigration actions what they are: kidnappings. Many of our city officials seem to shrug, saying little to nothing about the people they’ve been voted to represent. An entire community is living with fear, their lives on hold because of ICE, and Newberg city officials don’t want to address the trauma being perpetuated by rogue immigration enforcement.
This is unacceptable.
On October 5 and in conjunction with UNIDOS, we are hosting a Pack Newberg City Council event, hoping to call attention to our neighbors’ pain and to our city government’s inaction. We want to stand in solidarity with immigrants who have made Newberg home, and who are being dehumanized by ICE actions–and our local government’s inaction.
If you can participate, please gather in front of city hall before the city council meeting on Monday, October 5, at 5:40 p.m. Each participant in our event will receive a picture of an immigrant who has been harmed by ICE, including the images of 15 Yamhill County residents who have been detained, and 55 people (nationwide) who have died because of ICE activity.
We plan to hold the signs during the city council meeting to humanize a dehumanizing process, putting names and faces to the immigrants impacted by ICE kidnappings. After making statements during public comments at the council meeting, we will march from city hall to the flag pole, where we will hold a vigil for local and national victims of ICE.
Standing in Solidarity with our neighbors will convey to our elected officials that they cannot be silent about the harmful effects of unfettered immigration enforcement. Standing in solidarity with our neighbors will hopefully convey that we are mourning with those immigrants who are themselves grieving the loss of family members to ICE raids, as well as the loss of safety and security.
We hope you will join us in supporting folks who are our neighbors and friends, and who deserve to know that Newberg is a place they can call home.
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Let us know if you are willing to hold a sign! We need 60+ people, and it would help us a lot if you would let us know you are planning to be there and participate. We can even assign you the person’s sign you will carry ahead of the event. Please use this link to indicate your interest: https://forms.gle/C3GFNrujHXrg3yHi6
Newberg Neighbors for a Better Community 
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