Dearborn First UMC Stands for Justice for our Neighbors

JFON-MI leaders and volunteers celebrate Dearborn First UMC’s 10th anniversary as the flagship host site for Justice For Our Neighbors.

Justice for Our Neighbors Michigan (JFON-MI) is still standing with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers during the pandemic!

Legal services and monthly clinics continue to be virtual, but our staff remains busy. In January, we welcomed Krista Crumpton as our first Legal Assistant! Krista works part-time supporting attorney, Migladys Bermudez and managing the appointment phone and email. This has been a long-time dream of ours, and Krista’s presence and enthusiasm have already allowed Migladys to take on a complicated asylum case.  

Despite a halt in in-person clinics last year and the challenges of working remotely, Migladys still served close to 80 clients. So far this year, she has taken on ten new cases that include three unaccompanied minors from Central America and a family from Yemen. Your support and friendship make this possible! 

Our visits with immigrant men in detention in Monroe remain on hiatus, but our team of volunteers provided cards of friendship, devotionals, jigsaw puzzles, and puzzle books several times in 2020. Thank you for your generous contributions!

The JFON Immigration Book Club continues to meet regularly, now via Zoom. Please consider joining us even if you haven’t read the book! For more information, contact Suzanne Stichler at suestich1@wowway.com. 

Late last year, the JFON-MI Board of Directors established an Advocacy Task Force to develop a high-impact, statewide action plan to guide advocacy, outreach, and education activities across our four sites in Michigan. The task force includes JFON staff, board of directors, and volunteers from all four sites. Naomi Garcia from the Michigan Area Conference of the United Methodist Church is skillfully facilitating the group’s meetings. Once the action plan is finalized and COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, we look forward to actively engaging in person once again with educational presentations and activities.  

In the meantime, we are closely following developments, new policies, legislation and executive orders from the Biden/Harris administration. During Black History Month, we shared information on the intersection of immigration and racism and on ways to take action in support of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Cameroon and Mauritania.  

We miss you, so please stay in touch! Follow us on Facebook at Justice for Our Neighbors Michigan, check our website for virtual events (http://www.jfonmi.org/), and sign up to receive our e-newsletter (http://www.jfonmi.org/home-connect-1). 

We are looking for volunteers to help us create lists of community resources available for immigrants and to serve as translators for legal work that happens outside of our clinics. If you have time and are interested, please email Tori Booker at tbooker@jfonmi.org.

Thank you and see you soon (we hope)! Together, we are still standing with our immigrant neighbors! 

-Tori Booker, JFON Michigan Advocacy Manager and Regional Liaison