Fast for Our Families

Search this site

Why We Are Fasting

On New Year’s Eve, a half dozen of us had our last meal and entered St. Ann’s Mission in Naranja, Florida, just south of Miami. We have vowed to consume only liquids and not eat another meal until the Obama Administration hears the voices of all the families torn apart by deportation. We need the Administration to act in its executive authority now to:

1. Suspend the deportation of immigrants with American families, especially families with U.S. citizen children or spouses until Congress acts to fix the broken immigration system. 

2. Send the Secretary of Homeland Security to South Florida to meet with us, the fasters, and hear from us firsthand the conditions that moved us to fast.

In the meantime, we will continue our fast indefinitely. We are asking all those of conscience, especially those that are losing a friend or family member to the broken immigration system, to join us in the Fast for Our Families.

Support the Trail of DREAMs

On January 1st, 2010, a small team of brave, passionate young immigrant students from Florida’s Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER) will embark on a 4-month long, 1,500 mile walk – the Trail of Dreams. As they travel through the southeastern United States, this courageous group will be seeking meetings with political and civic leaders, joining in rallies and vigils, and reaching out to the media - galvanizing support for immigration policy reform in communities that might otherwise be without a voice.       

Visit the Trail of DREAMs at: http://trailofdreams.net/Home.html
Press Room‎ > ‎

Immigrant Rights Movement Escalates!

For Immediate Release: January 5, 2010
                                                                                      
Contact: Subhash Kateel (Fast For Families/Miami) 347-524-3374
Juan Carlos Ruiz (New Sanctuary Coalition/New York) 347-563-3483
Janis Roshuevel (Families For Freedom/New York) 917-526-1136

Immigrant Rights Movement Escalates!
Detained Haitian Immigrant Leader Jean Montrevil Joins Fast for Our Families as 8 NY Clergy Arrested Fighting Separation of Families

New York, NY/Miami, Fl – Jean Montrevil, a NYC immigrant rights activist and father of four announced yesterday that he was officially joining in solidarity with the Fast for Our Families, a group of 5 community members in South Florida who took their last meal on New Year’s Eve.  The Fast for Our Families and Montrevil are both asking the Obama Administration to stop separating immigrants from their American families.  In support of all immigrant families facing separation, 8 clergy were arrested at a protest outside of New York’s Varick Street Detention Center while protesting Montrevil’s detention.

Two days before New Year’s 2010, Homeland Security shocked New Yorkers when the agency detained community leader Jean Montrevil. On New Years Day, five individuals, some affected directly by deportation, similarly shocked many around the country by entering St. Ann’s Catholic Mission in Naranja, Florida (a suburb of Miami) and announcing that they would consume only liquids “until President Obama hears the voices of families separated by deportation.”  According to Faster Jonathan Fried, the grandson of Jewish immigrants.

“The Fasters in Miami are fighting to keep families together, my husband and me are fighting to keep families together, so we will fight together!”  exclaimed Jani Montrevil, Jean’s wife, US Citizen and mother of his US-born children.  Fried, who has been fasting at the church since Friday was excited to hear the news. “It is great to know that this movement to keep our families together is spreading across the country,” he said.

More are expected to join the Fast for Our Families this week.  Solidarity actions are being planned in Texas and are ongoing in New Hampshire.  Meanwhile prominent clergy and elected leaders are calling on the feds to return Montrevil to his wife Jani, an African-American school teacher, and his four US-born children.

On her arrest today, the Rev. Donna Schaper of Judson Memorial Church, where Montrevil worships, stated: “I am being arrested because it is a moral outrage that our government would do this to such a great man and father (Montrevil). And these immigration laws that destroy families contradict the values we should uphold as a society. They need to change now.”
 

####