Calendar

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Consider your position in your community. What can you contribute to undocumented community members or migrant organizations?

Do you know any legal, mental health, social work professionals?

What about school employees?

We need EVERYONE to consider how they can mobilize support for vulnerable migrant families.

If you yourself don’t hold a professional position that is needed, consider this: Could you serve as a first-call, point person for someone who is detained? Reach out to them to initiate a supportive conversation.  Are you positioned to do child pick-up and safeguarding? Well-connected with community orgs or professionally situated to help with legal, medical or other needs?

See the attached flyer for more resources and ways to get involved.

Click the link on the right to learn more!

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

What to do if you are arrested, visited, or questioned by ICE

Say you wish to remain silent and immediately request to speak with a lawyer. Do not sign anything. Ask to see a warrant. https://www.nilc.org/resources/know-your-rights-what-to-do-if-arrested-detainedimmigration/

Ohio National Lawyers Guild Hotline: (614) 654-6477

Call this number if you are arrested during a demonstration or visited/questioned by ICE

Ohio Immigration Hotline: hotline@ohioimmigrant.org or 419-777-HELP (4357)

Call this number to share information about harmful incidents involving immigrants such as ICE arrests or raids, or to request resources and guidance on policy and legal matters.

Access ICE and CBP detention statistics

Scroll to bottom: https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management Watch this video for help interpreting the data: https://www.instagram.com/ reel/DLiQzYVRZGv/igsh=MWF3Y2s0NDZxbXh5aA%3D%3D

Keep track of immigration court data from Transactional Records Access Clearing House (TRAC)

Immigration info home: https://tracreports.org/immigration/ New proceedings filed: https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/ntanew/

Follow Austin Kocher on Substack to read about current immigration enforcement https://substack.com/@austinkocher/posts

Join us for updates on local campaigns for liberation. Special Guest from San Salvador: Leslie Schuld from CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) speaking on current challenges to democracy in El Salvador, namely mass incarceration and the suspension of constitutional rights during this fourth consecutive year of the State of Exception (State of Emergency).  Why are human rights and environmental defenders (including church pastors) getting caught up in the dragnet that the government is casting to catch alleged violent criminals? Why are journalists fleeing the country. What is the CECOT? Why is the US deporting people (even those with no criminal records) to that notorious prison? How is the new Foreign Agents Law impacting human rights organizations like the CIS and Cristosal, which made the decision to withdraw all its staff from El Salvador. 

Join us for refreshments. Backyard playground. Fair trade sales. Suggested donation: $10. (If it rains, we'll move inside into the gym.)  This is a family friendly event. All ages welcome! 

Get your tickets [suggested] here: https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/summer-international-solidarity-social

Walk-ins also welcome.

VOLUNTEERS: If you would like to volunteer or bring some snacks to share, we'd appreciate knowing ahead of time. You can sign up here

See and share the Facebook event here.

location: St Paul's Community Church 4427 Franklin Blvd, Cleveland (backyard; entrance from Franklin Blvd). On-street parking. 

Related: a US House Resolution is calling for nuclear disarmament. Urge your congressperson to co-sponsor. Learn more on our website: https://www.irtfcleveland.org/news/articles/anti-militarism-call%C2%A0%C2%A0nuclear-disarmament 

Related: World Beyond War is posting info about Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemorations happening all over the world. Click here to see more. 

Cleveland event: Wednesday August 6, 2025

Wednesday, August 6, 2025 marks the 80th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. We will commemorate this day with a Silent Peace Walk in downtown Cleveland. Eighty people dressed in white, the color of mourning in Japan, will solemnly and meditatively walk from Cleveland Public Library’s Eastman Reading Garden to Willard Park and the Free Stamp. We will remember the Hibakusha, the “bomb-affected people,” seeking water to ease their suffering. At sunset, we will light candle lanterns, declaring our intention that there will never be another nuclear war. No more Hiroshimas! No more Nagasakis! No More Hibakusha!

We need your help. We invite you to SIGN UP HERE to join in the Silent Peace Walk and help us to spread the word so that we can sign up at least 80 walkers.

This 80th anniversary commemoration Silent Peace Walk has been initiated by Cleveland Nonviolence Network, IRTF, and Cleveland Peace Action. We welcome other groups to add their names as endorsers and help sign up walkers.

The walk:

We will gather at 6:30pm at the Eastman Reading Garden betweeen the two buildings of the library (old Main Library and Louis Stokes Wing) 525 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44114 .

For the first hour, we will have a few gathering activities (fold paper peace cranes, listen to inspiring spoken word, a land welcome/grounding,  participate in a centering message to get us into a meditative space). We will begin our walk (everyone dressed in white) at 7:30pm, meditatively walk from Cleveland Public Library’s Eastman Reading Garden to Willard Park and the Free Stamp. The approximate route is less than 1 mile.

PARKING

Parking on Cleveland streets is free after 6pm. Our volunteers have counted approx. 80 free on-street parking spots (not including handicapped spots) on these streets:  

Lakeside Ave: in front of City Hall (601 E Lakeside); between E 9th and E 12th; in the parking lot of the Water Department/DoubleTree Hotel  (north side of Lakeside at E 12th).

St Clair Ave: between E 6th and E 9th, between E 9th and E 12th.

See the Facebook event here.

See this letter from Cleveland Peace Action published in Cleveland.com. Author: Francis Chiappa is a clinical psychologist and a longtime board member of Cleveland Peace Action.

This Aug. 6 will mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Nagasaki was bombed three days later. There were an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people killed, half of them dying slow deaths from burns, radiation, malnutrition, and related injuries.

These two small nuclear bombs unleashed a nuclear arms race. At its peak in 1986, there were over 60,000 nuclear weapons, most of them held by the United States and the Soviet Union. Even a small nuclear war of 50 to 100 explosions could lead to “nuclear winter,” with catastrophic effects on climate and the Earth’s capacity to sustain life. During the Cold War, Armageddon was avoided by luck, plus some remarkable restraint by high-level and low-level decision-makers in the United States and Soviet Union.

By the early 1980s, public anxiety was peaking. A Nuclear Freeze was proposed, to halt the production, testing and deployment of these weapons. From resolutions of support in New England town meetings to mass demonstrations, people rallied. National polling indicated large majority support. President Ronald Reagan opposed legislation but came to believe that nuclear war was an existential risk. In Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he found a like-minded partner. These two men spearheaded arms limitation talks. Their efforts ultimately reduced the world total of nuclear warheads to about 12,000, where it stands today. Risk and anxiety decreased. We as a people gradually forgot the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Today, we should be anxious. We’re in the early stages of a new multinational nuclear arms race. New START is the last surviving Cold War treaty. Without action by the United States and Russia, it expires Feb. 4, 2026. The guardrails are off.

The United States is committed to modernizing and upgrading all parts of its nuclear arsenal, even the sitting-duck target of land-based missiles in their Midwestern silos. Russia and China are keeping pace. The estimated modernization cost to American taxpayers will be nearly $1 trillion -- and will only put us at greater risk.

This June, after a visit to Hiroshima, Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, said: “As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tension between nuclear powers.” She also said Iran was not close to building a nuclear weapon, and was later rebuked by the president for her remarks. The United States and Israel subsequently bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, but the potential for these weapons in Iran remains. The Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran which could have prevented this war was abandoned by President Trump in his first term.

In the Ukraine war, Vladimir Putin has hinted at using nukes. Meanwhile, the United States has avoided declaring a No First Use policy on nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan recently exchanged fire and both are nuclear-armed. Military planners on all sides are seriously considering use of smaller “tactical” or useable battlefield nukes. If such a weapon were used, would there be nuclear retaliation? Once any bombing starts, it’s difficult to stop. When the bombs are nuclear, the stakes are infinitely higher. This is precisely why Reagan and Gorbachev negotiated arms reductions four decades ago.

MORE INFO ABOUT HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI COMMEMORATION

Pax Christi USA has posted an updated Apology Petition to the People of Japan to commemorate the upcoming 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombings on August 6-9, 2025.

https://paxchristiusa.org/2025/07/10/apology-petition-to-the-people-of-japan-on-the-80th-anniversary-of-the-us-atomic-bombings/

About the Petition

On August 6, 2016, during a prayer service of repentance and nonviolent witness to commemorate the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in front of the White House, an apology petition was read and presented to Mr. Mimaki, a Hiroshima A-bomb survivor (hibakusha). The witness was sponsored by the Dorothy Catholic Worker, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore and Pax Christi USA in cooperation with other faith-based peace and justice groups. More than 700 people signed the petition. In September 2016, Mr. Mimaki delivered the petition to the mayor of Hiroshima and later was presented to the Hiroshima Peace Museum. To mark the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Japan, an updated petition was signed by more than 240 people and was sent to and received by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to Nihon Hidankyō, the main A-Bomb survivors (hibakusha) organization in Japan and 2024 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The original petition was composed by people connected with the Catholic Worker and is the fruit of years of public witness by nuclear abolitionists who met and were inspired by many hibakusha. The petition was co-sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, the Isaiah Project, the Sisters of Mercy Justice Team, Little Friends for Peace, Jonah House, the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, and Pax Christi USA. The petition has been used each year at Aug. 6-9th commemoration witnesses at the Pentagon and White House. Please sign and incorporate the use of the Petition in local acts of nonviolent witness and circulate widely. 

This updated petition for 2025 has been revised to include new developments regarding the increasing danger of nuclear war, a papal proclamation regarding the immorality of possessing nuclear weapons, and the TPNW. It will be sent to the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Nihon Hidankyō, and church leaders.

In hope for a disarmed world,

Art Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington DC

SPECIAL INVITATION FROM THE CATHOLIC WORKER IN WASHINGTON DC 

“Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.” (Epitaph at bottom of the Hiroshima Peace Park Memorial Cenotaph and Peace Flame to remember all the victims of the atomic bombings)

Dear Friends, 

 To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the sinful and criminal U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, in concert with Pax Christi, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Little Friends for Peace, the Isaiah Project and other peacemakers from the DMV, invites you to attend a prayer vigil/witness on August 6th outside the Pentagon, and on August 9th, outside the White House. 

During our public witness, we will read an updated Apology Petition to the people of Japan that was previously signed in the past by 940 Americans to repent for the U.S. use of nuclear weapons in 1945. Please sign and circulate this updated Petition which Pax Christi USA has posted on their web site: https://paxchristiusa.org/2025/07/10/apology-petition-to-the-people-of-japan-on-the-80th-anniversary-of-the-us-atomic-bombings/

We will also remember and pray for the victims of these unspeakable nuclear atrocities and all those who witnessed the destructive power of nuclear weapons use, testing and mining--hibakusha, pacific islanders, Native Americans, downwinders, and all other victims of nuclearism--and call for nuclear abolition. 

Nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal. Pope Francis declared that the very possession of nuclear weapons is immoral and 73 countries have now ratified the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which entered into force on January 22, 2021, thereby making nuclear weapons illegal under International law. The nine nuclear-armed nations — the U.S., Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea — have not signed the treaty, nor has any nation from the NATO alliance. 

On January 28, 2025, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset the Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds before midnight, the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been. This is due to the existential threats of nuclear war and the climate crisis, bio- and cyber threats, nuclear proliferation, state-sponsored disinformation and Artificial Intelligence. The Ukraine war and recent Israeli and U.S. attacks of Iran has further exacerbated the nuclear peril. 

 In 2024, the nine nuclear-armed states spent $9.9 billion (11%) more on their nuclear arsenals than the year before, a total of $100.2 billion, or $3,169 per second on nuclear weapons. In the past five years, from 2020-2024, these countries spent $415.9 billion on their nuclear arsenals. The United States had the biggest increase from 2023-2024, at $5.3 billion, and spent more than all of the other nuclear-armed states combined, at $56.8 billion. China remained second, at $12.5 billion, and the United Kingdom came in third, spending $10.4 billion. The U.S. nuclear arsenal upgrade now underway is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion over the next several decades. 

 The Navy has contracted with General Dynamics to build the Columbia class nuclear subs to replace the existing Trident fleet. Twelve Columbia class subs will cost over $130 billion and the first of these subs will be named the USS District of Columbia. As these exorbitant  resources are spent on weapons of mass murder, 120 people died without the dignity of home last year just in D.C. 

The USS Florida Trident nuclear submarine, now refitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, was deployed on November 5, 2023 to the Middle East, in support of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza. And the USS Georgia Trident sub was recently used to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at several Iranian military sites. We join our voice with all those urgently calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel and U.S. complicity in the genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, an end to apartheid and the occupation of Palestine, and for a just peace for Palestine and Israel. We call, too, on the U.S. and Israel to make peace with Iran!

 As we call on the nation to repent for the nuclear sin, abolish all nuclear weapons, ratify the TPNW, and redirect exorbitant military and nuclear expenditures to meet urgent human needs, we do so in solidarity with actions taking place around the U.S. and worldwide. 

The Hibakusha plead to the world: “Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist.” 

Martin Luther King, Jr. exhorts us: “The choice today is…either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

 Pope Francis declares: "Nor can we fail to be genuinely concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of any employment of nuclear devices. If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned…The total elimination of nuclear weapons is...a moral and humanitarian imperative of our time.”  

Please join us and share this invitation widely. 

Organizers of the Aug 6-9 commemoration vigils include: Assisi Community, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Isaiah Project, Little Friends for Peace, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, Pax Christi USA

When: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 (Anniversary of the U.S. Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima) @ Pentagon 7-8 AM

 Where: Pentagon Designated Protest Zone on the Southeast Side of Building (Take South exit from Pentagon Metro station--Walk a short distance on sidewalk toward South Parking Lot--vigil site is on left behind fencing)

 When: Saturday, August 9, 2025 (Anniversary of the U.S. Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki) @ 10 AM

 Where: Outside the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. (North side)