2019 AMOR Annual Report

On February 14, 2020, the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) celebrates three years of building resistance and supporting community members and families who have been impacted by the unjust immigration system and other forms of state violence. Thank you very much for helping us get this far. We are grateful for our community’s support during 2019, for showing up to rallies and demonstrations, donating money, volunteering, and coming to our fundraising events and meetings.

AMOR is a coalition of six grassroots organizations fighting state violence while building community-based support systems. Grounded in principles of anti-racism, we practice our values by centering the voices, experiences, and leadership of directly impacted people. Our participatory structure prioritizes community members learning about AMOR’s services, accessing these services, and taking part in AMOR’s volunteer and organizing structure. We foster communities of support and solidarity while sharing our collective knowledge and skills with each other and with local service providers. AMOR’s staff of two coordinates six support teams that connect people with relevant resources and services: Immigration Legal Support, Police Violence Relief, Community Care, Language Justice, Transportation, and Community Response.

marching with banner: "KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER"

As our network has grown over the past three years, relationships of trust within the community have strengthened and AMOR has received more referrals. In 2019, we focused on building our capacity to meet increasing requests. Here’s some information about what our teams have accomplished over the past year.

Case Work

  • The Immigration Legal Support team provided 97 people with holistic case management related to immigration detention, deportation, and status changes, and paid bond to release 4 people from the Wyatt Detention Center.
  • The Community Care team connected 23 people with free and low-cost mental health care and held 3 donation drives for care basket items, toys, and food.
  • The Language Justice team provided their translation and interpretation services to 28 individuals and groups.
  • The Transportation team gave 126 rides to community members.

Trainings

In 2019 we hosted…

  • 3 ICE watch training sessions.
  • 3 community interpreter volunteer training sessions.
  • 3 transportation volunteer training sessions.
  • 3 Know Your Rights training sessions.

 

Community Building and Healing Events

  • Healing Day for community members, volunteers, and organizers to receive services including massage, acupuncture, and reiki.
  • Annual Grill-Off fundraiser and cooking competition at Lincoln Woods State Park.
  • Community Healing in Puerto Rico event facilitated by Caminando la Utopia, a community acupuncture collective in Puerto Rico.
  • Summer Beach Day in Middletown.
  • Annual Lobster Fest fundraiser at Providence Friends Meeting.
  • AMOR’s first-ever Fall Potluck for community members, volunteers, and organizers to share food together.

 

Public Actions

  • January 26: Demonstration at Bristol County for Week of Action to end deportations of Southeast Asians.
  • February 17: Noise demo supporting ICE detainees in Boston.
  • March 14: Interrupted 287(g) meeting in Plymouth County.
  • March 28: March and noise demo at the Wyatt Detention Center.
  • April: Week of Action against the Wyatt.
  • April 10: Interrupted ICE Meeting held by Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson about their 287(g) contract.
  • May 27: Vigil and march for lives lost through detention.
  • June 12: Central Falls community forum to hear citizens’ concerns and give them an update on the Wyatt.
  • June 24: Social media storm and demonstration at Locke Lord LLP as part of the FANG Collective’s #ShutDownICE Week of Action.
  • June 25: Disrupted Plymouth County sheriff’s dinner to publicly ask Sheriff McDonald to end his collaborations with ICE.
  • June 27: Call-In Day to Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn demanding that he stop prosecuting people for resisting ICE.
  • June 27: Blockaded Massachusetts Department of Corrections in response to their 287(g) agreement with ICE.
  • June 28: Barnstable County Stonewall banner drop in Cape Cod to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall police riots.
  • June 29: Bristol County noise demo and rally to demand an end to collaborations with ICE.
  • August 15: Social media storm on Kemper Museum regarding their complicity in the Wyatt’s operations.

In 2019, AMOR led two primary campaigns. The first was against the Donald Wyatt Detention Center, which recently renewed its contract with ICE to profit from detaining people who recently crossed the border and were brought to Rhode Island. The Wyatt also detains people who were transferred from the Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston which ended its contract with ICE. AMOR launched its Shut Down Wyatt campaign to support those detained in getting released and to eliminate all contracts between the Wyatt and ICE. In December 2019, AMOR began supporting those detained in the Wyatt with their immigration bonds. For a long time, immigration bonds for people held at the Wyatt ranged between $25,000 to $40,000, which family members and organizations were not able to pay. However, due to a recent case decision in Massachusetts, people have started receiving lower bond amounts. As of December, AMOR has bonded out 4 individuals on its own and collaborated with families and the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN) in bonding out 2 more individuals from the Wyatt Detention Center.

The second campaign AMOR led in 2019 was to pass the Driver’s Licenses for all legislation. One of the most common requests AMOR receives through the support line is for transportation, especially women with children, so that they can get to important appointments and meetings. Driver’s licenses are incredibly important assets in our community, especially because public transportation in Rhode Island does not provide reliable service in all of our neighborhoods. People need to get around but do not want to break the law or drive without insurance. Many who would otherwise buy a car cannot do so because their immigration status prevents them from obtaining a license. Rhode Island is one of 13 states attempting to pass legislation that would grant undocumented state residents access to driver’s licenses. AMOR has been organizing with The Rhode Island Immigrant Coalition to support the bill and garner public support for the bill and will continue to do so in 2020.

Thank you again for supporting our work this past year, and we hope that you will continue to be part of our growing network. Together, we will keep fighting to close the Wyatt for good while building community-based support systems that decrease our reliance on institutions that promise safety while causing us direct harm. We are also excited to expand our staff by hiring a case manager assistant this year. If you have any further questions or comments, feel free to contact Catarina Lorenzo, AMOR’s Director, at (401) 675-1414 or cata@prysm.us.

Support Line

401-675-1414

The AMOR Support Line is a multilingual (currently English & Spanish) line of volunteer operators that connects community members to AMOR’s network of services, including comprehensive mental health care, legal support, court accompaniment, community support, transportation, and interpretation.