October Newsletter: Sounding the Shofar for Immigrant Justice
October 1, 2025 • 9 Tishrei 5786
TASTE OF HONEY
During these days of awe–of reflection, of community, and of tzedek–the sound of the shofar awakens us and gives us new resolve to act. As your support and the protestors and activists across the country have shown, we can come together in collective power to make change.
You can support Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice in sounding the shofar today.
Immigrants are being targeted and disappeared by ICE, facing inhumane and unsanitary conditions in detention, and being separated from their families.
Together we can mobilize even more volunteers and faith communities to take action, from rallying with partner organizations, to learning about the threats immigrants face and walking side-by-side with them to high-stakes immigration appointments.
As we’re working with our partners to build capacity for action across our communities and region, we’re preparing for anticipated ICE escalation in Seattle.
We’re looking closely at the powerful organizing in Chicago to counter increased, violent ICE activity, which has mobilized thousands of protestors and political activism, including by many people who have never previously been politically active. You’ll read about the situation in other places later in this newsletter, like in Portland, whose city and mayor are taking a stand against ICE activity.
Your support this holiday season enables JCIJ to continue sounding the shofar and advocating in our city and state for immigrant justice!
When immigrant communities are under attack by the federal government, we count on our state and local officials to step up and protect us. However, we’ve learned over the last few months that state agencies have been sharing our sensitive data with ICE. Talking about protecting immigrants is not enough. We need our governor and state officials to take action to safeguard our data. Sign OneAmerica’s petition and show up to their events to put pressure on our state government to protect our data and protect our communities!
MEETING THIS MOMENT
Accompaniment: Know someone who wants to be accompanied to their immigration appointment or hearing?
Contact the WAISN Hotline 1-844-724-3737 Monday-Friday from 6am-6pm and request Accompaniment. Note: Please give as much lead time as possible. The Jewish Coalition will dispatch trained accompaniment volunteers
View flyers in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Lingala here.
Printable Accompaniment Flyers in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Lingala.
Know someone who needs an immigration lawyer or who has been detained?
See JCIJ's Resource How to Support an Immigrant Who Is Detained in WA
English & Spanish versions with concrete details, links, and a list of lawyers.
EVENTS
Values in Action: Accompanying and Supporting Our Immigrant Neighbors
Thursday, October 16, at 1:00 PM
Join HIAS and voices across the country–including JCIJ’s Executive Director, Andrea Soroko Naar, to learn more about what accompaniment is, why it’s more important than ever, and how to plug in or create your own program. This program elevates accompaniment programs in which the broader Jewish American community is already engaged and to share knowledge and resources. Both HIAS and JCIJ know the real human impact of responding to the extra-judicial detention and deportation of our immigrant neighbors.
While the current challenges are considerable, so too is our collective power when we show up in solidarity to support the most vulnerable among us. Accompanying immigrants to hearings, ICE check-ins, and other legal appointments is a powerful way to recenter our focus on humanity; providing companionship and bearing witness to impacted individuals as they navigate systems and processes that are now even more complicated and frightening.
JCIJ's In-Person Accompaniment Training for New Volunteers
Sunday, October 26, at 2:00-5:30PM
Meet this moment as an ally and show solidarity by getting trained to accompany immigrant community members to high stakes immigration appointments and hearings. This training is for people committed to becoming active participants in JCIJ’s Accompaniment program.
Tickets are $18 to attend, which helps defray the costs of event expenses and materials. Registration is required. We will send you the in-person location in North Seattle closer to the date of the training.
Be a part of deportation defense efforts and show solidarity with immigrant community members. Get trained to accompany neighbors to immigration court hearings, ICE check-ins, biometrics, and ankle monitor appointments. Training will be participatory and practical and include what to do if the community member is detained.
Is this training right for you? Accompaniments happen between Monday-Friday 8am-5pm and can last several hours, especially if driving someone to/from their appointment or hearing. If you work a 9am-5pm job, accompaniment unfortunately would not be the right volunteer role for you, but scroll down and stay in touch for other volunteer opportunities! If you have questions about this training, feel free to contact us at team@jewishcoalition.org.
SHARE YOUR VOICE
2025 Jewish Community Public Policy Priorities Survey | Jewish Community Relations Council
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle is conducting their annual survey to determine advocacy and legislative priorities in 2026. Share your voice by October 20 to ensure that immigrant rights and justice remain a top priority in the coming year!
National Accompaniment Landscape Survey | HIAS
HIAS is gathering information about how, where, and with which partners/projects the Jewish community is involved in immigration court accompaniment across the US. They intend to use this information to develop and provide resources - including an online community of practice - to those interested in supporting our immigrant neighbors in this way.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
El Centro de la Raza: Building the Beloved Community Gala | Saturday, October 11, at 5:00 PM
Join El Centro de la Raza in-person on Saturday, October 11, 2025 for their annual Building the Beloved Community Gala and take part in an exciting event that raises funds for 43 programs and services that benefit more than 21,000 individuals and families across our region. The evening will include live music, a reception, silent and live auctions, a three-course meal, and the presentation of the Roberto Maestas Legacy Awards and Scholarships!
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Fundraiser: An Evening of Justice at Wing Luke | Thursday, October 16 at 5:30 PM
Join Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum to honor the dedicated legal community who provides critical support to our organization and our mission of defending and advancing immigrant rights. Featuring delicious food and drinks, an inspirational program, and the opportunity to support NWIRP’s vital work!
Immigration Update from NWIRP | Tuesday, October 21 at 5:00 PM
Join NWIRP for a free webinar focused on recent immigration related updates. They'll be shared in English from 5 - 5:45; the same updates will be shared in Spanish from 5:45-6:30. Please join at whatever time works best for your language needs.
VOLUNTEER
JCIJ supports free legal clinics!
A monthly day-long Asylum Clinic for past and current residents of Riverton Park United Methodist Church. This clinic is held on weekends. We are seeking immigration lawyers or paralegals; non-immigration lawyers and paralegals; and people who have sufficient fluency in Spanish, Lingala, French, Haitian-Creole or Portuguese to serve as interpreters. Volunteer at tinyurl.com/jcijvolunteer.
Adopt a Day Labor Corner | The National Day Laborer Organizing Network
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) is calling on all allies to Adopt a Day Labor Corner in your local community. If you are not at risk of deportation, NDLON asks you to consider taking action today. Adopt a Day Labor Corner asks you to go where day laborers congregate–like big box home improvement stores–where immigrant day laborers are at extreme risk of harassment and arrest. Choose a location convenient to you and commit to showing up regularly. Fill out the form on NDLON’s website to find out more and get connected to people in our local communities who have already adopted a corner.
RESOURCES
NWIRP Resources | Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Informational videos and PowerPoint slideshows from NWIRP and Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese for asylum seekers to help navigate the immigration court and asylum process.
Know Your Rights Resources - When the government arrests or tries to arrest someone, or when a government official or police officer "just wants to talk," every person in the United States has certain basic rights. These rights apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship - and regardless of who is President.
If someone you know is detained at the Detention Center in Tacoma, call NWIRP at 253-383-0519.
Family Safety Planning Webinar hosted by Legal Counsel for Youth and Children (LCYC) and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
Resources for Deportation Defense | Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
Know Your Rights flyers and information in English, Spanish, French, Lingala, Portuguese, and Somali.
Support WAISN’s Fair Fight Bond Fund.
Know Your Rights App
This app developed by the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) is available for iPhones and is in 16 languages, including Asian languages, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Russian. It has the ability to read your rights out loud to an ICE or law enforcement agent and send a message to an emergency contact.
LOCAL NEWS
City of Portland will issue land use violation notice for ICE facility, triggering process to determine next steps at the site | City of Portland
The City of Portland believes the federal government violated detention conditions of its land use approval 25 times in a 10-month period, according to federal records. Next steps could include fines or a land use hearing. Federal government records from a 10-month period show more than two dozen detention policy violations of the facility’s land use conditions of approval with the city, which does not allow detainees to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours. The notice also references a second violation related to boarded windows, which is not associated with the land use approval.
ICE detainee in Tacoma contracted tuberculosis while held at Anchorage Jail | ACLU Alaska
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee held during June at an Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) facility has been hospitalized in Tacoma, Washington, with tuberculosis. The 35 individuals held at Anchorage Correctional Complex (ACC) were informed by ICE upon their return to Tacoma on June 30th that they were exposed to tuberculosis while detained in Alaska.
Advocates call for audit of Washington state agencies to protect immigrant data privacy | KOMO News
OneAmerica’s press conference and rally for data rights in Washington State on September 17–which JCIJ attended and supported–received media coverage. As KOMO reports, new statewide protections are being sought to keep immigrants from being tracked down and detained here in Washington.
A coalition of civil rights groups and immigration rights advocates called on Gov. Bob Ferguson to keep people's information in state databases out of the hands of federal agents. “Every day our beloved community members are being arrested, detained, snatched and disappeared from their cars, their homes, and their families,” said Roxana Norouzi, the executive director of OneAmerica. “We're calling on Governor Ferguson to use his executive powers to stop the Department of Homeland Security from accessing our private data."
ICE recruitment ads in Seattle target law enforcement | Seattle Times
The federal government is airing commercials on cable television to entice Seattle law enforcement officers to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ad uses inflammatory language and touts that hired applicants could receive a signing bonus up to $50,000 and student loan repayment. Mayor Bruce Harrell released a statement on Tuesday that the recruitment campaign uses “misstatements of both law and fact” and insults Seattle law enforcement officers. In Washington, state law mandates that local police agencies don’t take part in immigration enforcement. Local law enforcement can’t ask about someone’s immigration status unless it’s relevant to a criminal investigation, and they also can’t arrest or detain someone solely to determine their immigration status.
A guide to navigating the immigration court system in WA state | Cascade PBS
Cascade PBS spoke with immigration attorneys and advocates in Washington to answer questions regarding recent federal changes and our region’s unique challenges. This information may help you better understand why you have been summoned to court, or how you can seek help if facing potential arrest and detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
FEDERAL NEWS
The Hand that Rocks The Gavel | This American Life
In this episode of This American Life, a group of immigration judges, who almost never speak to the press, describes the dismantling of our immigration court system from the inside.
Immigration officers kill man trying to flee vehicle stop near Chicago | The Guardian
A man was fatally shot during a vehicle stop on the outskirts of Chicago by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after attempting to flee the scene, according to officials, and another officer was injured during the altercation. Meanwhile, in nearby Broadview, demonstrations began at dawn and were set to continue until the evening. By late morning, several dozen people had assembled outside the facility, according to CBS News Chicago.
In Chicago, ICE actions are triggering a new wave of political activism | NPR
Chicago has a long, proud history of activism and is considered by many the birthplace of community organizing. So it's no surprise that there's fierce opposition in the city to increased immigration enforcement. On Friday, ICE made 400 arrests since it launched Operation Midway Blitz two weeks ago. Resistance in the city is attracting many who are becoming politically active for the first time.
ICE attacks on observers | The American Prospect, Bloomberg
Journalists and observers in Los Angeles and elsewhere have been targeted and assaulted by ICE, in violation of the First Amendment. Yet the Department of Homeland Security claims that recording ICE actions is “violence” and is an act of “illegal harass[ment].” As The American Prospect reports, “violence” is expansively and loosely defined; when asked to provide “concrete examples of violent assaults on personnel, the DHS spokesperson pointed to an incident of trash dumped on an ICE agent’s lawn and a sign with a profanity directed at an agent by name.”
Bloomberg reports Amanda Trebach’s experience, a volunteer in a community group that monitors ICE activity in Southern California. In August, she was assaulted, arrested, and her phone was taken while documenting ICE activity. Yet these practices of “documenting the actions of public officials have longstanding protection under the First Amendment, supported by numerous federal court rulings. But some scholars and digital privacy experts are concerned about the limits of those constitutional protections and what risks citizens take on when they join immigrant monitoring groups.”
Trump administration plans push at UN to restrict global asylum rights | Reuters
Under the Trump administration’s proposed framework, asylum seekers would be required to claim protection in the first country they enter, not a nation of their choosing. Asylum would be temporary and the host country would decide whether conditions in their home country had improved enough to return, a major shift from how asylum works in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Trump's administration has already rewritten the U.S. approach to immigration, prioritizing white South Africans for entry and using force to detain people already in the country. With the U.N. event, Trump would be taking that restrictive vision global, urging its adoption by the world body that established the international legal framework for the right to seek asylum. As Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, said, "Right now, if someone comes to the border of any country because they are fleeing for their lives on the basis of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion, they have the right to protection," Hetfield said. "If it were to change, we'd be back to the situation we were in during the Holocaust."
SONGS IN THE KEY OF JCIJ
A few songs for hope and joy curated by Dina Burstein
Achat Sha'alti - Aly Halpert ~ A psalm to prepare for Rosh HaShanah sung by Ali Halpert and Joey Weisenberg.
Resistance Revival Chorus with Rhiannon Giddens "All You Fascists Bound To Lose" ~ Woody Guthrie gives me hope.
Todo Cambia Mercedes Sosa ~ The Argentinian anti-fascist singer wrote, “An artist isn’t political in the party political sense – they have a constituency, which is their public – it is the poetry that matters most of all.”
Pink Pony Club ~ Chappell Roan sings a tribute to a gay bar that made a huge difference in her life. This song was suggested by my granddaughter and included here for pure joy.
Be in touch with the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW
at team@jewishcoalition.org and learn more at jewishcoalition.org.
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Donate to build Jewish Coalition’s advocacy, accompaniment and community engagement.
Volunteer for or learn more about accompaniment, legal support, observing ICE flights, tutoring, interpreting, crafting JCIJ communications, and supporting immigrant-led partners.