Stand with our Refugee & Immigrant Community

Show up. Speak up. Support Community.

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Jewish Family Service was founded 134 years ago to support refugees and immigrants. Jewish communities carry in our collective memory the knowledge of what happens when fear is normalized, when governments decide some people are disposable, when communities stay silent because they believe they are safe or are too fearful to speak up. JFS understands all too well the danger of what we are seeing in Minnesota and communities across the country.

We are calling on our entire community to stand together and support our refugee and immigrant neighbors during this uncertain and frightening time — when people are being grabbed off the street and detained without due process. Children are being left without their parents, not knowing when they’ll see them again. Federal agents are killing civilians. People are dying in ICE detention.

We know that many people care but don’t know how to help. Below, we’ve listed several ways that you can show up and take action today.

Please join us today to stand with our refugee & immigrant community. We must act now. We cannot wait for this to become even worse before we decide it matters.

Ways to Take Action

Buy Groceries & Other Essential Items for Refugees & Immigrants

Buy groceries and essential hygiene products from our Amazon wish list, which we will then give to our clients.

Buy essential items

Contact Your Government Representatives

Jewish tradition commands us to welcome the stranger because we were strangers. The commandment to protect the stranger is repeated multiple times in the Torah. As a Jewish community and agency, we take that seriously. We not only bear witness to the actions being taken against our family, friends and neighbors, but we believe we are obligated to take action.

JFS engages in statewide advocacy to support policies and legislation that prioritizes the health, wellbeing, and stability of our community members. We have a responsibility to our clients, our staff, and our broader community to support, protect, and advocate for the safety of immigrants and refugees and Jewish individuals and families.

Take action today by calling or emailing your elected leaders and urge them to treat all human beings with respect and dignity.

Sign up for the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice’s (JCIJ) Community Response List to receive alerts about how to mobilize. (Learn more about JCIJ.)
Read a sample conversation from ACLU about how to talk to your elected officials.
Find your representatives.

Email Your Members of Congress

Join Bend the Arc’s email campaign to demand not one more dollar for ICE’s cruelty and meaningful restrictions to stop ICE’s ceaseless violence. Urge your members of Congress to protect our communities from ICE violence.

Contact Your State Legislators

Tell your Washington State representatives that you support these bills:

SB 5906, “The SAFE Act,” is intended to prevent ICE from going inside schools, daycares and hospitals without a judicial warrant. The bill is intended to expand upon the Keep Washington Working Act so people feel safe working at a daycare, going to a doctor, or going to class without worry that ICE will come inside without a warrant.

SB 5855 would ban law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings during their duties.
HB 2105 would provide protection to immigrant workers during workplace audits.
HB 2597 would create a civil cause of action for constitutional violations during immigration enforcement.

Act Locally

We encourage you to talk with your city council member, mayor, and other local representatives and urge them to protect residents from aggressive ICE tactics.