| Page 3 of 3 < |
Keeping the Faith on Social Issues
African immigrants Tony Isama, right, and Chuma Mmje take part in a recent AIM meeting in Silver Spring. Numerous immigrants are active in the group.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
A spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees such offices, indicated that AIM may be reaching too high on this issue. "It doesn't appear feasible to locate a new office in that part of Maryland," said Bill Strassberger.
Immigrants in Hawaii and Alaska generally must fly to the nearest full-service immigration office, Strassberger added, and those in states such as Idaho and Maine must drive several hours each way.
Influence of Immigrants
The federal government may not see the logic of providing more services for immigrants in Montgomery, but an AIM-sponsored house meeting in Burtonsville last month made clear where the organization gets such ideas.
The session brought together 18 people, some from an AIM member congregation, the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville. Most of the meeting's participants were immigrants from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia and other African countries. The conversation focused on one participant's suggestion that the county provide a "welcome center" for new immigrants to provide referrals to employment opportunities, offer English instruction and advise newcomers on "how to navigate the system."
(The people at the house meeting were unaware that Montgomery already provides such services at its Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity in Wheaton and, to a lesser extent, at the Upcounty Regional Services Center in Germantown.)
Resurrection parishioners then brought the gist of the discussion to an AIM "strategy session" at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda on Nov. 30, where many other congregations reported on house meetings of their own. The strategy session yielded a long list of issues, including health care for the uninsured, eliminating what participants said were ethnic and racial biases in school testing, and the need to continue helping immigrants.
Laurence A. Froehlich, a member of Kehilat Shalom synagogue in Gaithersburg and an AIM leader, ran a disciplined, good-natured meeting of 75 or so people that began and ended with prayer.
"For many people," he said, "for thousands, we are the only voice that they have to our political leadership."
Mobile
Email