Immigration Activist Josh Rubin, Who Helped Close Two Migrant Teen Prisons, to Speak/Show Film in Northampton, December 17; Press Conference that Morning
For Release: December 1, 2019
Contact: Joan Epstein, 413-896-2301, joanepstein at aol.com
NORTHAMPTON: Activist Josh Rubin sparked a national movement around immigration justice for teen migrants imprisoned by the US. Inspired by Rubin, hundreds of people have come to the border, to witness and to help. The subject of the new film, “Witness at Tornillo,”Brooklyn-based Rubin will visit the Valley Tuesday, December 17 for a showing of the film and discussion, 7 PM, Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley Street, supported in part by a grant from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
Rubin, 67, lived in an RV for two months as a solitary witness in the desert, reporting daily on Facebook about first the privately-run detention center for migrant teens in Tornillo, Texas, then its replacement in Homestead, Florida. His posts went viral and sparked the national movement that shut down these two prisons holding up to 3,000 kids each who are not accused of any crime but were torn from their family members.
Rubin and immigration justice activists nationwide continue to press for information on where these children have been sent after the closure of the Homestead center. He is now focusing on organizing a presence on the US-Mexico border for early 2020.
The public is invited at no charge (voluntary donations are welcome). Journalists can also meet Rubin at a press conference that morning, Pioneer Valley Workers Center, 20 Hampton Avenue #200, Northampton 11 a.m..
The event is organized by Western Massachusetts Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice, a local group that formed in June 2018 and sent a delegation this summer to witness at the detention center for migrant teens in Homestead, Florida, now closed thanks in part to Rubin’s kindling of nationwide movement. The group will be sending a delegation to the US-Mexico border early next year.
Event Summary:
Event: Film showing and talkback with Josh Rubin, immigration activist
Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Times/Locations:
7 PM public event, Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley
Street;
11 AM press conference,Pioneer Valley Workers Center, 20 Hampton
Avenue #200, Northampton
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/998735250490819/
Admission: Public event is open as space permits at no charge but with a voluntary donation requested; seating is limited. Any money raised over costs will be used to assist the thousands of people currently detained in tent camps in Mexico and to witness the situation on both sides of the border.
Organized by: Western Massachusetts Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice
Sponsors: See list below, or view the latest update on the Facebook event page
CO-SPONSORS so far include (in alphabetical order) Beit Ahavah Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton (Florence); Congregation B’nai Israel Tikkun Olam Committee (Northampton); Critical Connections; Hampshire Mosque; Indivisible Northampton; Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) West; Jewish Community of Amherst Tikkun Olam Committee; Karuna Center for Peacebuilding; Northampton Friends Meeting; Pioneer Valley Interfaith Refugee Action Group; Pioneer Valley Workers Center; Refugee Support Project of Temple Israel, Greenfield, Western Mass Asylum Support Network, Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence. This event is also supported in part by a grant from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. We thank all the funders and sponsors.
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