Local
Late on Inauguration Day, President Biden signed an Executive Order repealing the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy and directing federal departments to carry out the mission. The Department of Homeland Security announced it will suspend deportations for 100 days, starting January 22. This gives the government time to establish a new immigration policy, and for Congress to pass immigration laws that create pathways to citizenship for immigrants who are already home.
Lynn Tramonte, Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance responds:
From every immigration jail, let freedom ring!
This 100-day pause is a sigh of relief for so many people in Ohio and beyond. After four brutal years of cruel and truly incomprehensible deportations, the U.S. Government seems ready to inject some common sense into the enforcement of civil immigration laws.
Faith, Community Leaders Submit Applications for Stays of Deportation in Support of Edith Espinal and Miriam Vargas
On Thursday, January 21st at 11 a.m., faith and community leaders will stand in solidarity with immigrant mothers, Edith Espinal and Miriam Vargas, who are submitting updated applications for stays of deportation to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Columbus.
Following a press conference, one ally will enter the ICE office to submit the applications on behalf of Espinal and Vargas.
WHAT: Press conference and submission of applications
WHEN: Thursday, January 21st at 11 a.m.
WHERE: ICE Field Office 50 W. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43215
WHO: Edith Espinal, in sanctuary at Columbus Mennonite Church since October 2017 Miriam Vargas, in sanctuary at First English Lutheran Church since July 2018
After it went public that black-owned bakery Bake Me Happy in Merion Village was on the receiving end of a racist and violent threat, another minority-owned restaurant came forward saying they too are dealing with racists making threats behind their cell phones.
Not to downplay their situation, but Bake Me Happy told Columbus police and the FBI they received threats over a single weekend. The popular and lauded Curry Up Indian Grill on Sawmill Road told the Free Press they’ve been targeted with racist calls for almost two years now, about six to ten times a month.
Curry Up owner Vishal Patel said he received a threat “just the other day.” And threats against minority-owned restaurants and businesses could be a much bigger problem than the police or public know.
Patel believes minority-owned establishments up and down Sawmill are also receiving threats, but the owners are too afraid or worried they may scare customers away if they were to go public.
The upstart pop act, with releases also ranging in genre from rock to funk to hip hop, Ace & Boris have cultivated the ideal repertoire for live shows post pandemic. The band is prepping for a post-pandemic extravagant live show tour of the Midwest with record label Darlar Productions. Tour dates and locations will be announced soon by Darlar Productions; the band intends for Columbus to be on the schedule. The quickly rising artists are sure to draw large audiences with their stage performances and musical skill alike.
Singers and multi-instrumentalists Ace Peterson and Boris Rockwell began writing and performing music in the greater Columbus, Ohio area in 2019. Their talent as musicians and showmen was quickly recognized by record label Darlar Productions, with whom they entered into a creative collaborative agreement that year, granting them full license overall production decisions and distribution of their works.
The upstart pop act, with releases also ranging in genre from rock to funk to hip hop, Ace & Boris have cultivated the ideal repertoire for live shows post pandemic. The band is prepping for a post-pandemic extravagant live show tour of the Midwest with record label Darlar Productions. Tour dates and locations will be announced soon by Darlar Productions; the band intends for Columbus to be on the schedule. The quickly rising artists are sure to draw large audiences with their stage performances and musical skill alike.
Singers and multi-instrumentalists Ace Peterson and Boris Rockwell began writing and performing music in the greater Columbus, Ohio area in 2019. Their talent as musicians and showmen was quickly recognized by record label Darlar Productions, with whom they entered into a creative collaborative agreement that year, granting them full license overall production decisions and distribution of their works.
Wednesday, January 20, 3pm
Columbus City Hall, 90 W. Broad St.
Facebook Event
Appeal for a Mass Anti-Fascist Demonstration at the Statehouse on January 20.
We will meet outside of Columbus City Hall (90 West Broad Street) to begin the rally, and march together to the Statehouse!
As Inauguration Day marks the transition from the Presidency of Donald Trump to that of Joe Biden, we recognize that it represents no fundamental change in the white supremacist oligarchy that governs this country, no relief for working class people suffering under a deadly pandemic, and no solution against the rising tide of fascism.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 7:00 PM
Join Fair Districts to learn the basics about redistricting, why and how Ohio will draw new state and federal legislative maps in 2021. This is also a great start for those who want to get trained to join the Fair Districts Speakers Bureau. Register here.
Sandwiched between the nation’s honoring of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 18 and the inauguration of President Biden on January 20, a deportation charter flight is scheduled to leave Florence (Arizona), for Mauritania on Tuesday. Flights to Haiti and Jamaica with others being deported are also scheduled.
These are some of the last acts of Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) . For the Black Mauritanian, Haitian, and Jamaican communities and their families, it is deeply painful for these asylum-seekers who traveled so far to seek freedom and their families.
Before Trump, deportations to Mauritania “were rare”, says Houleye Thiam, president of the Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in US (MNHRUS), which is based in Columbus and Cincinnati. According to US Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, the largest Mauritanian community in the US is here in Central Ohio.
26th Annual Free Community Breakfast
Sponsored by Police Officers for Equal Rights
Monday, January 18, 2021
8am Breakfast (carryout only)
First A.M.E. Zion Church, 873 Bryden Rd., Columbus
12noon Virtual Broadcast
“Promise, Prosperity, and Power”
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Vergel L. Lattimore, President, Hood Theological Seminary
Watch live: https://www.facebook.com/shawtempleamez
The storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump anti-democracy rioters is reported to have caught the local police off guard. Trump supporters have a long history of violence, more recently culminating with the breaking into statehouses in Michigan and Oregon as well as the Proud Boys march in D.C. that involved multiple stabbings.