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STORY: Maria Jimenez, a longtime social justice activist and immigrant rights defender, was recently terminated from her position as Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). For the past 16 years, Maria Jimenez served as Director of the Border Monitoring Project overseeing human rights abuses and moved to Philadelphia when she was promoted as Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program for American Friends, overseeing Project Voice, a $5 million national immigrant rights program.
A statewide vigil was held by diverse community groups in Houston, Dallas and El Paso this week calling upon American Friends to immediately reinstate Maria Jimenez as Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Program and to keep the Houston American Friends office open. An attempt was made to reach the American Friends national office to discuss termination specifics, but no one was available for comment. Texas ACLU Vice President for Legal Issues, David Kahn, attended the vigil, and offered comments on her dismissal: "This action does fly directly in opposition to their values. Certainly for decades and decades they've stood for the idea of taking principled positions and standing up for what you believe is right. And that's all Maria ever does. So we've heard that in response for what she believes is right, namely honoring a commitment to keep this office open, when she stood up and said 'That commitment must be honored' our understanding is that's what lead to her firing. And that's terrible. That's completely contradictory to whatever AFSC has ever stood for, at least in my lifetime." National and local immigrant rights advocates view the termination of Maria Jimenez by American Friends as a direct blow to the national immigrant rights movement and are also personally offended, as conveyed by Felix Rodriguez from the International Coalition of Mexicans Abroad: [Translated into English from Spanish:] "This evening with our presence we are opposing the unfair decisions with which we we disagree with. Because when we are talking about Maria Jimenez, we are not just talking about any Hispanic, but about pure activism, and a person who's been a godmother to many people in Houston, and she's supported a lot of us. Today she needs our support, and we need to stand up for her. We are opposed to another blow that's not directed to just one person or an office. They must understand and we must understand. This is a blow directed toward the entire Hispanic community, so we must unite and protest." Next week, a national mobilization of immigrant and human rights groups will gather in support of Maria Jimenez. They are calling for accountability. According to supporters of Jimenez, American Friends needs to adhere to its mission of social justice and handle this issue with more dignity and respect. Anna Nunez & Shannon Young, KPFT News, Houston.
E-mail Anna Nunez & Shannon Young at Latinovoiceskpft@aol.com & news@kpft.org respectively.
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