In this NH Peace Action Conversation Series broadcast we are joined by two passionate advocates for immigrant justice in New Hampshire, Maggie Fogarty and Grace Kindeke, who will talk about the oppressive tactics of ICE and CBP in the Granite State and the organizing work of the AFSC and others who stand in solidarity with immigrants. We will look at some of the most shocking abuses of ICE including the involuntary sterilization of women, inadequate protections against COVID-19 for detainees, the movement to dismantle ICE and CBP and the opportunities for humane immigration policy in the next administration.

The U.S. immigration system violates civil and human rights and terrorizes our communities. This violence did not begin with the Trump administration but has escalated in recent years, with increased surveillance, checkpoints, separation of families, profit-driven incarceration, denial of asylum rights, and increased danger to immigrants who are detained during the pandemic. Instead of acting as the service agency it was originally designed to be, federal immigration officials are increasingly involved in the administration's authoritarian response to racial justice protests and operate with apparent impunity.  

U.S. immigration policies are rooted in many decades of U.S. foreign, military, and economic policies that deny human rights and undermine security abroad. These policies have become a driving factor of forced migration; creating the circumstances that displace people from their homes while also then punishing them for seeking refuge in the U.S.  

How are immigrants and allies responding to these realities? What are the demands of the immigrant rights movement for humane immigration policy?

Maggie Fogarty - Maggie is the Director of the NH Program for the American Friends Service Committee. Her work includes organizing, coalition-building and advocacy for immigrant rights, affordable housing, tenant and worker rights and ending homelessness. She coordinates NH Voices of Faith and the NH Immigrant Rights Network and is co-director of the NH Immigrant Visitation Program at the Strafford County jail. Maggie was a founding member of Housing Action NH and served for many years on the boards of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness and New American Africans. She has worked for AFSC-NH since 2007. She lives with her family in Dover, NH.

Grace Kindeke - Grace is an artist, a dancer, and an activist earning a B.A. in Africana Studies and Sociology at UMASS Boston. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she immigrated to the U.S. as a toddler and grew up in Manchester, NH. In 2013, Grace moved to Boston where she strengthened her voice, performed from her ancestral roots, and deepened her commitment to Black liberation, systemic justice, and generational healing. In 2018 gentrification encouraged her and her husband to move back to New Hampshire. She brings her intersecting experiences and perspectives as an African, a woman, and an immigrant to her work as AFSC-NH’s new Program Coordinator.