Today in the Mission Yearbook - LA’s Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance helps workers stand up for their rights

Funding from the Presbyterian Hunger Program supports alliance’s work

March 11, 2020

Andrew Kang Bartlett of the Presbyterian Hunger Program stands with Alexandra Suh of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. (Contributed photograph)

From fighting against wage theft to pushing for more affordable housing, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance has made its mark by challenging injustice in their southern California enclave since 1992.

The alliance, also known as KIWA, is on the frontlines in Koreatown, bringing about change for low-wage workers and other vulnerable community members in the Los Angeles area.

“KIWA is an inspiration,” said Andrew Kang Bartlett, associate for National Hunger Concerns for the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP). “Not only do they educate and organize fellow Korean and Latinx workers to stand up for their rights, they address pressing needs in Koreatown around housing, development and community planning.”

KIWA’s advocacy work has led to better pay and working conditions at markets and restaurants in Koreatown and elsewhere in Los Angeles.

The nonprofit also co-developed a 52-unit affordable housing complex, Casa Yonde, in Koreatown in 2014, and continues to provide supportive services for tenants, who include formerly homeless individuals and families. Some former foster youths, people with mental health issues and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault also may reside there.

As an organization working on many levels, “we do the range from maybe helping a tenant to apply for a job or to figure out how they can get support for mental health services — or whatever they may need as individuals — all the way to working on statewide affordable housing policy,” said KIWA’s executive director, Alexandra Suh.

Kang Bartlett praised KIWA for being a lead advocate for increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a change that’s being implemented gradually in the Los Angeles area and other parts of the state.

KIWA is “a powerful engine for positive change and that’s why the Presbyterian Hunger Program has maintained our relationship with and support for them over many years,” Kang Bartlett said.

The Hunger Program has been able to provide long-term support of groups like KIWA because of gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing, an offering that brings safety, sustenance and hope to individuals and communities in need.

“The Hunger Program grant has been consistent now for almost 20 years annually,” said the Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, a PHP Hunger Action Advocate in the Presbytery of the Pacific. “The Hunger Program really came in to help support KIWA when it was very young and has helped it become stable and grow and develop its mission through the years and its strength.”

Suh said the funding has been “immensely important” in a material sense but also as a form of moral support as KIWA has worked on various issues.

The consistent funding from PHP is “a shining reminder of why we do this work,” Suh said.

Both KIWA and PHP strive to address the root causes of hunger, one of the reasons the minimum wage hike victory was so important.

“Los Angeles is such an expensive place to live, and the minimum wage is still not nearly enough,” Suh said. “But it gives people a little bit more to be able to survive and to be able to address food insecurity and even housing insecurity.”

Along with pushing for the hike, KIWA does outreach to make sure employers are notifying workers about the increase, said Bethany Leal, KIWA’s development director. “Every now and then, somebody will say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know the minimum wage went up’ because their employer’s just not telling them.”

Many of the people that KIWA serves are immigrant workers who “don’t have a strong command of English and don’t know their rights in this country as workers and so they get taken advantage of,” Gamble said. “KIWA formed to educate workers about their rights but also to help them learn how to fight for their rights,” including how to approach a boss.

As the alliance continues to work to achieve gains for workers and residents of Koreatown and beyond, it’s hoping to engage more people in KIWA’s efforts to make transformational systemic change.

“I would love it if we could have a stronger relationship with specific presbyteries in the area, and that is one thing that we look forward to building more mindfully in the future,” Suh said.

Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laura Wampler, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Tammy Warren, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Creator God, we pray that you will give us the vision to see opportunities to serve you. Help us forge connections to work together to accomplish your work in the world. Amen.

Community ID cards help immigrants feel welcomed

A ministry of belonging

By Richard Lord | Presbyterians Today

Thanks to FaithAction’s community ID program, men and women in North Carolina are able to obtain valid ID cards. Courtesy of FaithAction International House

When refugees and other immigrants arrive in a new community, they often lack drivers’ licenses or other forms of identification that can help them get established in that community. And that lack of identification can compound the sense of isolation that the new arrivals already feel.

Ana Wells remembers that feeling. When Wells arrived in the United States from her native Argentina more than two decades ago, she carried all of her possessions in two suitcases. She had no friends or family living near Raleigh, North Carolina, which she would call home. She felt alone and isolated. She felt no connection to the people in her adopted country. And she didn’t like how that felt.

It was then that she vowed to make sure those who came after her would not feel what she felt.

For 22 years, Wells has worked with immigrants and migrants to help them become a part of their new home. “I’ve tried to help new immigrants surpass these negative feelings,” said Wells.

One way she has done that is through a program offered through her church, Sedgefield Presbyterian in Greensboro, North Carolina, that provides community identification cards to immigrants and others who lack conventional forms of identification.

Similar community ID programs have sprung up nationwide, with municipalities issuing the identification cards. The cards can help new arrivals with matters such as enrolling their children in school

or picking them up from school, getting prescription drugs and receiving services from health clinics.

The cards also can help new immigrants feel safer in their dealings with police.

The Sedgefield Presbyterian program, called Faith ID Drive, operates in conjunction with FaithAction International House, a nonprofit that provides community identification cards for immigrants and others in Greensboro who lack conventional ID cards.

According to FaithAction, community identification cards do not allow the holder to vote or to drive, but they are practical — not only showing that immigrants belong in the United States, but also giving immigrants a sense of belonging.

“When I speak to immigrants to help them with the adjustment process, I tell them that they must remember that native-born Americans don’t know what our lives were about. They can’t put themselves in our shoes, because they don’t know what the shoe is made of,” Wells said. But the ID cards, she adds, help.

Listening to the community

Sedgefield Presbyterian became involved in community IDs “because we wanted to make serious bonds in our neighborhood,” said the Rev. Kim Priddy. 

Priddy says that most of the church’s congregants come from within five miles of the church. Within the congregation, the majority are over 40 years of age and many of them are retired. There are only three people of color and very few young families in the congregation, which is not representative of the greater community. 

In June 2017, a community dinner was held at the church. Forty people came. Half were from the church and half were from the neighborhood. After the dinner, Priddy says, a panel discussion was held where the question was asked of Sedgefield Presbyterian’s neighbors, “What can we do to improve our relationship?”

The answer was revealing.

“We learned that many of the people were very lonely, and that many were afraid of the police,” Priddy said. “Once we realized this, we asked, ‘How can we build bridges?’ We found the answer in the community ID cards.”

Later that year, Sedgefield Presbyterian began hosting its community ID program, which is sponsored by FaithAction International. The church provides the building as well as the publicity, provides hospitality and invites organizations such as health clinics and law enforcement agencies. FaithAction International is also there, processing and issuing the cards.

Over the years, the FaithAction ID Network has seen a demand for community IDs. FaithAction currently operates in North and South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Iowa, Ohio and Oregon.

According to the Rev. Neil Dunnavant, executive pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro, the impetus for FaithAction’s community ID program occurred when North Carolina stopped issuing drivers’ licenses to undocumented people. If the unlicensed drivers were confronted by police, the police would be less harsh with people who could establish their identity, he explains.

“The community ID card gives people dignity,” said Dunnavant. “It is way of accepting them and it helps them to feel safe. As a Presbyterian, it impressed me as a demonstration that everyone is welcome. Participating in this program is a way for me to put my faith into action.”

To receive an ID card, one must attend a mandatory orientation that explains the benefits and limitations of the card and provide a passport, embassy ID or national ID card. Even if someone has a government-issued ID, they often need a second ID to obtain some benefits. This can be the community ID.

Helping with law enforcement

The Rev. David Fraccaro, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and executive director of FaithAction International, says there are many reasons why a person may not have a photo ID. They may have lost it. They may not know how to obtain one or they may hesitate to get one because of distrust of those in power, such as police.

“Initially, the newly arrived told us that they felt that they are not trusted by law enforcement,” Fraccaro said. “This led to them revealing that they do not trust law enforcement. Our goal is to build trust between the newly arrived and law enforcement. The ID card allows them to feel that they are respected as a person. The ID card is a very important tool in this struggle.”

The need for photo IDs is not just a need among immigrants. According to a 2012 study conducted by Stanford University and the University of Michigan, 12% of adults living in a household with less than $25,000 annual income lack photo IDs, compared with just 2% in households with over $150,000 annual income.

A much-needed ministry

John and Charlotte Stone have dedicated their retirement years to volunteering with agencies dealing with social justice issues.

They often spend 40 hours per week volunteering.

“These volunteer experiences have opened my eyes regarding how much more needs to be done,” Charlotte Stone said. “It is not just a matter of us putting money in [an offering] basket, but also going one step further to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Among the beneficiaries of their time is the community ID program at Sedgefield Presbyterian, where they are members. 

“I’m not satisfied by going to church and hearing sermons,” John Stone said. “Assisting in the community IDs helps me to grow as a person and as a Presbyterian.”

Charlotte Stone recalls getting a recent phone call at home from a 9-year-old immigrant girl who was afraid that her mother would be deported. Stone promised the girl she would get help and, because of the community ID program, she was familiar with the work of FaithAction International and was able to reach out to the organization for help.

“It felt so good to help her — that I could do something to lessen her pain,” she said. The incident made Stone realize something about her faith.

“It’s not just what you believe,” she said, “but it’s about how you act as a result of your Presbyterian beliefs.”

Richard Lord lives in Ivy, Virginia.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Online giving fuels congregation’s work to help immigrants

With the help of partners, Iowa church was ready when an immigration crisis erupted

March 2, 2020

In part because an online giving system was already in place, members of First Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, were ready in May 2018 when dozens of workers at a concrete plant were seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. (Photo courtesy of First Presbyterian Church)

Mount Pleasant is a community of fewer than 9,000 people. It has an idyllic town square surrounded by restaurants and local businesses, just like one would expect when picturing small-town Iowa.

That image changed on May 9, 2018, when dozens of men were seized from Mount Pleasant’s Midwest Precast Concrete plant by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Fear was rampant across the town as a helicopter flew over the factory. Stories of high school students leaving school to check on their fathers or mothers driving to elementary schools to pick up their children were both true and false — real for some and an exaggeration for others. People were scared. They wanted answers, but officials weren’t talking. By nightfall, First Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant was crowded with individuals trying to make sense of it all.

“It was a very traumatic evening,” said Tammy Shull, chair of IowaWINs (Iowa Welcomes its Immigrant Neighbors, a community commission of First Presbyterian Church). “We had families crying, not knowing what happened to the men.”

According to the Rev. Trey Hegar, pastor at First Presbyterian, 75 people were initially rounded up during the raid, with 32 eventually detained — 22 from Guatemala, and the rest from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.

“ICE wouldn’t release names,” Hegar said. “It took us two weeks to identify who was taken and that’s only because we had the families here telling us that their loved ones hadn’t come home.”

Mount Pleasant isn’t the first community to be shaken by an ICE raid and it likely won’t be the last. What sets this community apart from others is the legwork that was done prior to that day.

This includes First Presbyterian’s establishment of an online giving fund with the Presbyterian Foundation, which allowed the church to collect donations, particularly after the raid. Additional support for this important work has come from other organizations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which made grants to the Presbytery of East Iowa, and Presbyterian Women. Between the donations, fundraising, grants and other sources, almost $350,000 was collected for assisting refugees and immigrants in the area.  

The vision for IowaWINs is for Mount Pleasant to be “and inclusive and hospitable community that welcomes people from across the world looking for a new home.” (Photo courtesy of IowaWINs

After the raid happened, “because of all the connections we made through IowaWINs, we were able to reach out to all of those contacts to bring resources to the church and start helping these families,” Shull said.

This meant utilizing translators to gather and share information and working with immigration lawyers to identify where the men were located — which turned out to be multiple locations in Iowa, as well as one in Wisconsin and another in Illinois. Representatives from the Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project were there to explain what needed to be done to get the bond-eligible men out of jail.

Hegar said money donated to the church was not used to post bond. Instead, funds came from other sources.

Twenty-four of the men arrested that day were reunited with their families; the remaining were deported. Yet despite their release, the men were not granted new work permits.

Meanwhile, families are struggling to make ends meet.

To help, IowaWINs used the donations it received to set up an account for each family to assist with rent, utilities and legal fees. The church also opened a food pantry because of all the items it received the day of the raid and continues to receive from donors.

As donations to IowaWINs drop off, the organization is focused on sustainable efforts, launching Nutrimos last year. Nutrimos falls under the IowaWINS umbrella. Its leaders hope it can become a sustaining ministry so IowaWINs can move beyond the response to the ICE raid to a broader program for immigrants in the community.

Nutrimos “means ‘We nourish’ in Spanish because we will nourish people with food and opportunity,” Shull said.

If your congregation is interested in helping refugees and immigrants, a place to start is the Community Organization Workbook. The workbook is available at iowawins.net/our-story.html.

In the section about online giving and social media, Hegar stresses the importance of an online donation link, citing the church ministry weblink through the Presbyterian Foundation.

“It really gave us a home base online,” he said.

Meredith Hines-Dochterman, Writing for the Presbyterian Foundation

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tonia Trice, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Becky Trinkle, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Dear God, we praise you and give thanks for all that you have given us. May we share our abundance with others in your mission to this multicultural world. May we welcome and celebrate your rich diversity. Amen.