Families Belong Together - We Must Stop the Inhumane Separation of Migrant Children from Their Parents by the Trump Administration

"My heart goes out to the other mothers who are still aching for their children. I pray for them to have strength, and that they encounter people who can help carry their spirits, like the other women in the detention facilities did for me. In the face of such cruelty, it made all the difference." - Mirian G.

by Gregg Chadwick

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

My family joined the thousands who gathered, listened and marched nationwide yesterday to protest the Trump Administration's inhumane separation of children from their parents when they seek asylum in the United States. The ACLU explains:

"Homeland Security – in collaboration with Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department – is cruelly separating families at the border for no legitimate reason. Immigration authorities have separated THOUSANDS of children from their families. Some children, like the son of someone in our lawsuit, are as young as 18 months old.

We know the government will bend to public pressure because they have already reunited one asylum seeker with her child after more than 65,000 activists like you signed the petition. Now we need to make sure our members of Congress take action to end this cruel practice once and for all. Let’s reunite every family the Trump administration tore apart – and make sure this never happens again." 

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

“We are fighting for the heart and soul of America,” Yolanda Varela Gonzalez,  teacher and activist, told us yesterday as we gathered in MacArthur Park before the march. The crowd, many carrying protest signs, peacefully moved up Alvarado Street and then down 6th Street as we made our way to an immigrant detention center in downtown Los Angeles. “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” we chanted as we marched. Many of the commuters stuck in evening traffic honked and waved in solidarity. 

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

In contrast to the goals of our march, this morning, Republican Senator Graham admitted on CNN to Kate Bolduan that Trump's goal in ripping terrified children from their desperate parents is deterrence. As Senator Kamala Harris pointed out today,"Let’s call this policy of indiscriminately separating children from their parents at the border exactly what it is: a human rights abuse being committed by the United States Government." This is state sponsored terrorism. Families belong together. 

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Fact Check

As the Philip Bump in the Washington Post explains,"There is no 'Democrats’ law' that necessitates separating children from their parents. As people familiar with the rules regarding the handling of young people at the border made clear in interviews on Friday, the separation policy is a function of decisions made by Trump and his team. What’s more, the administration specifically implemented the policy to serve as a deterrent for those thinking about seeking entry to the United States." Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on May 7, 2018 that the Homeland Security Department would begin referring all undocumented border crossings to the Justice Department - for prosecution. No matter what Trump, Sessions, or Sarah Huckabee Sanders says- there is no law stipulating that children be separated from their parents at the border. Via Politifact:

Before the Trump administration, immigrants entering illegally as families were rarely prosecuted, said Sarah Pierce, an associate policy analyst of the U.S. Immigration Program at the Migration Policy Institute. Instead, immigrants were held in family detention centers until they were sent to appear before an immigration court or deported.

As Ryan Bort says in Rolling Stone, "Ripping infant children from their mothers isn't simply a side effect of Trump's amorality. It's now been promulgated as the official position of the United States. These acts are not an exception to American values, they're the new American values."

This is why we gathered and marched yesterday. And why we must continue to fight back with all the tools that we have. Below I outline actions that we can take and resources that we can use. (Thanks to Tokyo Sand for your helpful thoughts and ideas.)

A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in Mcallen, Texas.  John Moore/GETTY IMAGES

How to Fight Back – Pressure Congress

Call, email, tweet Congress. Your two Senators and one Representative are in the best position to force the administration to abandon this new policy. Please contact them and ask them to immediately stop the separation of children from their parents at the border. Also ask them to support bills that will help reunited children already taken from their parents and also prohibit future removals. These include the Senate’s HELP Separated Children Act and Keep Families Together Act. 

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has introduced The Keep Families Together Act (S.3036) which currently has 39 co-sponsors and is supported by American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Young Center for Immigrant Rights and the Women’s Refugee Commission.  Please call your Senators today and tell them you want them to support this bill.

The ACLU offers a script for calling the Senate - Link Here.

Find their contact info at Contacting Congress or at Call Congress.

Also, you can contact ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directly. Write to them here or call them at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

TIP: If your Senators or Representative aren’t on board, explain that you will call back regularly for updates on this issue. Then, tell them that this issue is so important to you, that if they do not act to end the separation of children from their parents, that you will actively work to get their opponent elected in November by raising money and speaking to every constituent you can get in front of.

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

How to Fight Back –
Please Support These Organizations:

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights The Young Center is a champion for the rights and best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children, making sure that wherever they land, whether here in the U.S. or in their home country, they are safe.

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Advocates for children’s rights as they migrate alone.

The Florence Project Free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children in immigration custody in Arizona

Informed Immigrant Understand your rights. The website is full of helpful information. Search for groups working on these immigration issues located near you here

RAICES Based in Texas, they offer free or low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families. They are seeking both donations and volunteers. Donate here and sign up as a volunteer here.

Border Angels This organization advocates for humane immigration reform with a special focus on issues at the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly in San Diego County.

The Texas Civil Rights Project is seeking “volunteers who speak Spanish, Mam, Q’eqchi’ or K’iche’ and have paralegal or legal assistant experience.”

The ACLU is litigating this policy in California.

If you’re an immigration lawyer, the American Immigration Lawyers Association will be sending around a volunteer list for you to help represent the women and men with their asylum screening, bond hearings, ongoing asylum representation, etc. Please sign up.

Al Otro Lado is a binational organization that works to offer legal services to deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, including deportee parents whose children remain in the U.S.

CARA — a consortium of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association — provides legal services at family detention centers.

Human Rights First is a national organization with roots in Houston that needs help from lawyers too.

Kids in Need of Defense works to ensure that kids do not appear in immigration court without representation, and to lobby for policies that advocate for children’s legal interests. Donate here.

The Legal Aid Justice Center Virginia based center providing unaccompanied minors legal services and representation.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras is an organization that provides humanitarian aid and shelter to migrants on their way to the U.S.

Together Rising is another Virginia-based organization that’s helping provide legal assistance for 60 migrant children who were separated from their parents and are currently detained in Arizona.

The Urban Justice Center’s Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project is working to keep families together.

Women’s Refugee Commission advocates for the rights and protection of women, children, and youth fleeing violence and persecution.

ActBlue has aggregated many of these groups under a single button.

CLINIC’s Defending Vulnerable Populations project offers case assistance to hundreds of smaller organizations all over the country that do direct services for migrant families and children.

American Immigrant Representation Project (AIRP), which works to secure legal representation for immigrants.

CASA in Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They litigate, advocate, and help with representation of minors needing legal services.

Freedom for Immigrants (Formerly CIVIC), which has been a leading voice opposing immigrant detention.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center represents all of the immigrant kids placed by the government in foster care in Michigan (one of the biggest foster care placement states). About two-thirds are their current clients are separation cases, and they work to find parents and figure out next steps.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is doing work defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education.

The Women’s Refugee Commission has aggregated five actions everyone can take that go beyond donating funds.

International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) — which organizes law students and lawyers to develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons — just filed suit challenging the cancellation of the Central American Minors program.

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

How To Fight Back – 
Support Petitions and Calls to Action

The ACLU is gathering signatures to petition Kevin K. McAleenan, Commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection to stop the government from abusing immigrant children. You can find the petition here.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has recommended guidelines for human rights at international borders which you can read here. The reported actions our DHS is taking do not comply with these guidelines. You can contact the UN Office for Human Rights here.

Amnesty International has been calling for an end to the U.S. policy of separating children at the border. Their call to action can be found at the end of this post here.

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

How to Fight Back – Stay Informed

Important Recent Articles on Trump's Immigrant Child Roundup 

UN says US must stop separating migrant children from their parents

At the border, my son was taken from me

Why the Trump administration bears the blame for separating children from their families at the border

Inside Casa Padre, the converted Walmart where the U.S. is holding nearly 1,500 immigrant children

'Toxic stress' and other permanent damage caused by stripping immigrant children from their parents

The Trump administration’s policy of separating families is designed to erase hope—with devastating consequences for thousands of children.

The administration is building a tent city to house the separated children

Defense Contractors Cashing in on Immigrant Kids’ Detention

‘It’s Horrendous’: The Heartache of a Migrant Boy Taken From His Father

A family was separated at the border, and this distraught father took his own life

I work with children separated from caregivers at the border. What happens is unforgivable.

Migrant in detention says her child was taken away while she breastfed

Sanders says it's 'biblical to enforce the law' when asked about separating families at the border

Sessions cites Bible passage used to defend slavery in defense of separating immigrant families

How to Fight Back – Make Sure That You Are Registered to Vote and Vote the Child Snatchers Out!

Families Belong Together March- Los Angeles, June 14, 2018
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Gorillaz - Humility (Official Video)

Happy Birthday Rachel Carson!

Rachel Carson's Powerful Legacy

Rachel Carson
photo courtesy of rachelcarson.org

Today I would like to honor the groundbreaking environmentalist Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring sounded one of the first alarms about the detrimental effect of pesticides on the eco-system. The natural world was my first love as a kid and reading Carson's work was instrumental in spurring me on to look deeply at and respect the complexities of our endangered environment.

Carson's interest in conservation began with her early work as a marine biologist, which led to her award winning book, The Sea Around Us. Subsequently, nature writing provided a powerful vehicle for Carson to bring mainstream attention to the chemicals being dumped daily into our streams and rivers. Her work inspired global bans of the pesticide DDT  and helped foster the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States.

I encourage you to honor Rachel Carson's legacy by spending some time today on the Audubon Society's website, the US National Park Service's site, or your local nature conservancies information boards. All of these sites provide important information on how you can get involved and help preserve our natural world for future generations.

The Late Afternoon of Time - San Francisco

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
The Late Afternoon of Time - San Francisco
24"x20" oil on linen 2018

Cities, like people, grow and change. In this spirit, San Francisco continues to inform my paintings. Last weekend, at a friend's birthday gathering in Culver City, I recounted how one morning, when I lived in San Francisco, I spotted the artist Richard Diebenkorn leaning up against a BART entrance watching the cable car turnaround across Market Street. Diebenkorn was captivated by the movement of the conductors as they spun the cars around on a giant wooden turntable. I stopped, leaned up against a wall, and flipped through art writer Robert Hughes' book Nothing If Not Critical until I reached his essay on Diebenkorn. I read slowly, pausing often to gaze up at Diebenkorn as he gazed towards Powell Street. 

Eventually, I closed the book, walked over and thanked Richard Diebenkorn for his art and inspiration. He smiled and tears seemed to well up in his eyes, as he said "Thank you. I am glad that my work inspires you. Is your studio nearby?" I nodded and tried to say something "about the interplay between figuration and abstraction in his work." Diebenkorn was frail at this point and seemed to know that he didn't have much longer to live. I didn't want to take him away from his moment alone in the morning light on Market Street. I thanked him again and moved on. Richard Diebenkorn died soon after in 1993.

The late morning light, when it cuts through the fog in downtown San Francisco, opens the city up like an epiphany.  That morning was a revelation for me. Lawrence Ferlinghetti saw something similar in the City's light and wrote,"

                "And then the halcyon late mornings
                        after the fog burns off
                               and the sun paints white houses
                                    with the sea light of Greece
                      with sharp clean shadows 
                            making the town look like 

it had just been painted." 

I learned something profound that morning when I encountered Diebenkorn - my  heroes were mortal. And in turn, my family and friends also had a short time on earth. Life is fragile. I looked at the streets anew. Around us and beneath us memories dwelt.  A friend of mine who made his way from place to place along Market Street slid up to me one day at the corner of 6th and Market and showed me a horses skull in his battered shopping cart. "I was helping a man dig out his basement and I hit something hard", he said. "We found an entire skeleton buried there. Probably from the earthquake - from '07"

 Later I read that the cable cars were built because the horses kept breaking down on the steep San Francisco hills. The horses legs would snap under the weight. Maybe my friend's horse pulled a burden up Jones Street until collapse?  

 An immigrant from Scotland devised a system to carry cars and passengers up the steep slopes without animal power. Gary Kamiya writes in The Chronicle:

"At a little before midnight on Aug. 2, 1873, the men in the power plant fired up the boilers. The engines turned over and the cables tightened. The rope began to hum in the street, the first occasion of a sound that would become as familiar to San Franciscans as Bow Bells to a London cockney.

At 5 a.m., the team gathered atop Clay at Jones. Andrew Hallidie’s gripman, reportedly an old locomotive engineer, looked down the 16 percent grade into the fog and chickened out. But Halide, who had been hurled off scaffolding, buried in a tunnel and gone for a real-life Logger’s Revenge on roiling rapids, had confidence in his invention. He jumped into the dummy, took the grip, picked up the cable below and began to descend Clay Street. When the car reached the bottom, it was spun around on a turntable and pulled back up to the summit."

The turntable. Diebenkorn's gaze. The Changing Light. The Late Afternoon of Time.

Gregg Chadwick
The Changing Light - San Francisco
24"x18" oil on linen 2018

Gregg Chadwick's Palette
(Colors Used for  The Late Afternoon of Time and The Changing Light ) 

Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia!

by Gregg Chadwick

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

Sending love and solidarity to all on this worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversity.

Illustrations via @UNAIDS

David and Violet Grohl performing When We Were Young

"Dave Grohl and his daughter Violet Grohl performed an acoustic cover of Adele's "When We Were Young" during a benefit concert in Oakland, California Saturday.

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The 12-year-old Violet ably handled lead vocals on the 25 single as her father strummed along on acoustic guitar. The solo Grohl set was part of the Notes & Words benefit concert, which raised funds for the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital."

Happy Mother's Day!

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
Belle Ville 
11"x11" oil on linen 

Don't Forget to Show Love!

by Gregg Chadwick

4-year-old superhero using his power to feed the homeless

I am incredibly inspired by the compassion illustrated by Austin Perine from Birmingham, Alabama. CBS Sunday Morning featured the video embedded in the tweet below and it really touched my heart. Take a minute to watch and if you are inspired please click on the link below to support this young hero! 

the world doesn't deserve this kid pic.twitter.com/2KPi843yA6

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 5, 2018

Link to Show Love and Fight Hunger GoFundMe page: 

https://www.gofundme.com/show-love-fight-hunger?pc=tw_dn_cpgnsharemore_r&rcid=r01-152566420867-89057fc9c67d44fe

U2 - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way

Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)

Please join me in celebrating the 39th Venice Family Clinic’s Art Walk & Auctions!

by Gregg Chadwick

Venice Art Walk & Auctions – Sunday, May 20 from Noon-6pm .

Silent Art Auction

Noon–6pm

Gregg Chadwick

Cool, Gray, City of Love

24"x24" oil on linen 2018

Honored that my painting Cool, Gray, City of Love will be featured in this year's 39th Venice Family Clinic's Art Walk and Auctions. In the years that I lived in San Francisco, on most weekday mornings, I would walk with my young daughter along Market Street to the Cable Car turnaround. She would board eagerly, her face pressed up against the glass as the car would climb a seemingly insurmountable hill. The Gripman would nod to me and smile as we rode together into the fog. My painting Cool, Gray, City of Love looks back to those San Francisco mornings. City of Love indeed.

Venice Family Clinic’s Art Walk & Auctions raises funds to help provide quality primary health care to 26,000 low-income men, women and children annually.

Services Include Medical + Dental + Vision + Behavioral Health + Substance Use Treatment + Child Development + Health Education + Health Insurance Enrollment

Sites In Venice + Santa Monica + Mar Vista + Inglewood + Culver City

Be inspired with me by the creativity and generosity of leading contemporary artists. Place your bid and join us in providing health care to people in need. Click here to view the 2018 Participating Artists.

View and bid on the entire auction at Paddle8 from May 7-May 18

Click here to bid early or if you can’t attend the event, to proxy bid.

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Artist Studio Tours

Noon–4pm

Meet local artists and get a behind-the-scenes look at their creative process. Your $50 donation also includes a 2018 Venice Art Walk t-shirt by signature artist Alexis Smith.

Click here to purchase tickets.

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Food + Live Music + Beer & Wine Garden + Family Fun + Dog Daycare + Bike Valet + Art Installations

Noon–6pm

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New This Year: Interactive Workshops

11am–5pm

Jewelry Making with Amanda Diaz

Family Crafts with Art Camp LA

Floral Design with Art Fleur

Succulent Arrangements with Big Red Sun

Art with Claudia Concha

Macramé Wall Hanging Workshop with Faithful Artisans

Candle Making with Flores Lane

Calligraphy with High Pulp

Tickets are required for the artist studio tours and interactive workshops and can be purchased in advance at venicefamilyclinic.org/artwalk. Questions? Call 310.664.7916.

Curatorial & Host Committee

Robert Berman, Beth DeWoody, Laddie John Dill, Sam Durant, Peter Fetterman, Andrea Fiuczynski, Robert Galstian, John Geresi, Adam Gross, Jacquie Israel, Jaime Manne, Ana Prvacki, Bert Rodriguez, Sonny Ruscha, Analia Saban, Jessica Trent, Billie Milam Weisman, Kulapat Yantrasast

Steering Committee

Joyce Akashi, Penny Akashi, Barbara Beezy, Kristina Campbell, Amy Coane, Debora Dale, Samantha Frank, Erika Fujitani, Cindy Henry, Shelley Hochberg, KC Mancebo, Etan Milgrom, Matthew Quan, Jodie Rea, Gwen Samuels, Jessamine Sison, Irene Weibel