67 Sueños youth share about their summer mural experience jkrieg@afsc.org Wed, 07/29/2026 – 14:40 Main content Paragraph This has been a summer of creativity, collaboration, and community for young people with 67 Sueños. Recently we sat down with some of our youth artists to hear about their experiences working on this year’s mural and what this project meant to them. And save the date! We hope you’ll be able join 67 Sueños for our Quinceañera on November 13! We will showcase not just the mural these youth are working on, but all the dope art and hard work this program has put in over the past 15 years. Get your tickets now! Please introduce yourselves. I’m Adrian, I’m 14 years old, and I’m from Oakland. Hello, my name is Lauren, I’m 16 years old. I was born here. My name is Stephanie, I’m 16 years old. I’m from Oakland, and my parents are from Veracruz, Mexico and Tabasco, Mexico. Hi, my name is Lily, I’m 16 years old, I’m from Oakland. My family is from El Salvador. How does it feel to a part of this summer mural project? Adrian: It feels pretty nice, honestly. It’s a lot of fun, and you get to meet new people. Lauren: I’ve never done anything like this in a long time. What have you enjoyed about the program? Stephanie: What I’ve enjoyed from this program so far is the people. They’re really kind. They make me laugh a lot, and it’s a good environment. Lily: I’ve learned new skills. I’d not gone into painting a lot, so it’s new for me. What is a new painting skill you’ve gained being in the program? Lily: I would say blinding. In past years, I wasn’t that good. This year, I’ve been improving a lot. Lauren: It’s more of just trusting myself and maybe trusting the process. What has been your favorite memory so far? Lily: Meeting new people and trying out new techniques with the paint. And also, being on a scaffold. I really like being up on a scaffold and on ladders. That was pretty fun. Why do you think programs like this are important? Adrian: I think they’re important because they give people opportunities that some people never have. And I’m blessed to be in this program because I get to be surrounded by a lot of good people. Lily: This program brings people together. And you get to learn new skills that get you out of your comfort zone. Remember: November 13 will be here before you know it! Please join 67 Sueños for our Quinceañera to meet our team and celebrate our amazing 15 years of work. Get your tickets now! Layout Type Full width Background color White Intro Featured media caption 67 Sueños youth practice painting skills. Featured media credit 67 Sueños Open in new tab Off Featured image Image Newsroom type Update Programs 67 Sueños Sort date Wed, 07/29/2026 – 12:00

AFSC vindicates public right to federal records on environmental hazards for detained immigrant children lmullett@afsc.org Wed, 07/29/2026 – 11:33 Main content Paragraph MIAMI, Fla. – After multiple years of delay, the federal government will be held accountable for withholding records confirming that immigrant children – including those separated from their families – were put in harm’s way while detained next to contaminated areas in Homestead, FL. This marks the culmination of an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) lawsuit against federal agencies that previously withheld documents about environmental hazards at the Homestead detention center (officially known as the “Homestead Temporary Influx Shelter for Unaccompanied Alien Children”).The detention center site was originally part of the Homestead Air Force Base in 1990 when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed the base on the Superfund National Priorities List for generating hazardous pollution and contamination. The detention center was shuttered in 2019 under immense public pressure from activists and community groups. “We shut down the detention center, but our struggle was far from over,” said Guadalupe De La Cruz, Program Director for AFSC’s Florida program. “The justifications and deceptions the government used to jail children on a toxic military site in Homestead are the same tactics they are using to justify cruel detention practices today. We were determined to expose the real story about how the federal government treated children at the Homestead detention center and to hold the government accountable so that children are not exposed to hazards like these again.”The initial requests were submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and sought information regarding contamination and other environmental conditions at and near the detention center, along with plans for migrant detention at the facility. When the Air Force and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to provide the information, Earthjustice and AFSC filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. in 2021 to enforce the public’s right to information about detention of children and the risk of exposure to environmental hazards at the Homestead facility. A federal judge ordered the agencies to disclose those records on a rolling basis, which ultimately amounted to more than 20,000 pages. Yesterday, AFSC reached an agreement with the agencies to pay its attorneys’ fees after confirming it had received all requested records.“The only way to ensure our rights have meaning is to enforce them when they are ignored,” said Tania Galloni, one of the Earthjustice attorneys representing AFSC in the case. “The government is not invincible. It has to answer to the courts. And it has to answer to the people.”The records confirmed that children as young as six years old were held at the facility and that some were not “unaccompanied minors,” but rather had been taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. There was no evidence that the detention center site had been evaluated for environmental hazards before the government began detaining children there, despite the known history of contamination at the base. The records further showed that remediation for the contaminated areas closest to the detention center had not been completed before or while children were detained there. “These documents confirm that the federal government placed children in harm’s way by detaining them next to a military Superfund site and active military base,” said Emma Shaw Crane, an assistant professor in Stanford University’s Department of Anthropology. “It took a multi-year collaboration between grassroots activists, lawyers, and academic researchers to take them to court and access these records. As the government expands detention and undermines mechanisms for transparency, we will continue working together to protect and defend the dignity of all people.”   AFSC collaborated with other immigrant advocates, academics, and environmental groups to expose the risks to children detained at the Homestead facility. Since the facility’s closure in 2019, they have continued to document the harms and seek justice and accountability, while also mobilizing to stop other immigration detention centers in Florida. Immigrant children and families are once again facing ramped-up family separation and detention efforts by the federal government.###The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.  Earthjustice is the premier environmental law organization in the U.S., and the legal backbone of the domestic environmental movement. For over 50 years, we have been fighting in the courts, in legislatures, and in the court of public opinion to stop the climate crisis, create healthy communities free of pollution, safeguard our precious lands and waters, and expand environmental legal frameworks to achieve these goals. Earthjustice.org  Layout Type Full width Background color White Intro Section Description Quaker organization vows to continue defending immigrant families and the public’s right to know Featured media caption Families protest at the Homestead detention center in May of 2019.  Open in new tab Off Featured image Image D7 data {“vid”:”53848″,”uid”:”1752″,”title”:”Mother’s Day action in Homestead, Florida”,”log”:””,”status”:”1″,”comment”:”1″,”promote”:”0″,”sticky”:”0″,”vuuid”:”bb57f951-97ac-4715-9227-3c3ac312fe41″,”nid”:”22902″,”type”:”image”,”language”:”und”,”created”:”1560874800″,”changed”:”1560874800″,”tnid”:”0″,”translate”:”0″,”uuid”:”7085daed-9eca-4f1d-955f-0efddeb8edac”,”revision_timestamp”:”1560874800″,”revision_uid”:”1752″,”taxonomyextra”:[],”body”:[],”field_copyright”:{“und”:[{“value”:”AFSC”,”format”:null,”safe_value”:”AFSC”}]},”field_created_date”:[],”field_image”:{“und”:[{“fid”:”19740″,”uid”:”1752″,”filename”:”MotherDay_Homestead.jpg”,”uri”:”public:\/\/images\/MotherDay_Homestead.jpg”,”filemime”:”image\/jpeg”,”filesize”:”430422″,”status”:”1″,”timestamp”:”1560874800″,”type”:”image”,”uuid”:”31d12063-d5dd-45f9-90f9-69eed5cd82c4″,”field_file_image_alt_text”:[],”field_file_image_title_text”:[],”metadata”:{“height”:1100,”width”:1467},”height”:”1100″,”width”:”1467″,”alt”:””,”title”:””}]},”field_photo_credit”:{“und”:[{“value”:”Lis-Marie Alvarado”,”format”:null,”safe_value”:”Lis-Marie Alvarado”}]},”field_related_work_areas”:[],”field_photo_essay_caption”:{“und”:[{“value”:””,”format”:null}]},”metatags”:[],”path”:{“pathauto”:”1″},”cid”:”0″,”last_comment_timestamp”:”1560874800″,”last_comment_name”:null,”last_comment_uid”:”1752″,”comment_count”:”0″,”disqus”:{“status”:false},”locations”:[],”location”:[],”name”:”Ronna”,”picture”:”0″,”data”:”a:3:{s:13:\”form_build_id\”;s:48:\”form-568py-YWkWsq1CJE6VNwW3t23Zxm6npKpng3NE1hjJA\”;s:7:\”contact\”;i:1;s:5:\”block\”;a:2:{s:5:\”block\”;a:1:{i:36;i:1;}s:5:\”views\”;a:1:{s:21:\”Topics_Search-block_1\”;i:0;}}}”,”path_alias”:”image\/mothers-day-action-homestead-florida”,”redirect_source”:false,”redirects_destination”:false,”real_url”:”https:\/\/madeo2-afsc-1917.pantheonsite.io\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/MotherDay_Homestead.jpg”} D7 node id 22902 D7 Image ID 19740 Location Florida Newsroom type Press Release Programs AFSC Florida Left side info Layne MullettDirector of Media Relations215-241-7085news@afsc.orgVisit our newsroom  Sort date Wed, 07/29/2026 – 12:00

Free after 17 months in ICE detention Henry Craver Wed, 07/29/2026 – 10:57 Main content Paragraph Mojtaba and Rachel Marandett had spent months exhausting every legal avenue to secure his release from ICE detention, hitting wall after wall. For the Iranian asylum seeker and his AFSC attorney, the struggle felt endless. Then, this past April, they finally made a breakthrough. Responding to a federal habeas petition, a district judge ordered a bond hearing, shifting the burden of proof onto the government. To keep him in detention, the Department of Homeland Security—which oversees ICE—now had to prove with clear and convincing evidence that Mojtaba was either a danger to society or a flight risk. They couldn’t. With the government’s case falling flat, the immigration judge had no choice but to grant his release. But freedom came with a crushing caveat. The judge set the bond at $35,000—a staggering, impossible sum for a man who had been locked up since his first day in the United States, with no family, no savings, and no safety net. Mojtaba and Rachel were demoralized.Across the country, immigration bonds have shot up. The average cost has risen from $6,500 in 2025 to $7,500 earlier this year. In the New Jersey circuit, the change is even more dramatic: $6,000 to $10,000. This bond inflation coincides with a rise in habeas petitions — federal court challenges arguing that a person is being unlawfully detained and should either receive a bond hearing or be released immediately.  With immigration courts now far less likely to grant relief under the Trump administration, attorneys have increasingly turned to the federal courts via the habeas petition. But even when a federal judge orders a bond hearing, it falls to the immigration judge to set the amount.   Layout Type Full width Background color White Details Image Credit Henry Craver Image Image Background color White Paragraph Mojtaba had already been detained for 17 months when his bond was set at $35,000. It was another stinging setback in a multi-year pursuit of safety.  While still living in Iran in 2022, he’d joined the Women, Life, Freedom, movement, a massive wave of popular protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini that demanded women’s rights and broader political freedom. Shortly after, government agents began harassing Mojtaba. His store was ransacked, and he was abducted and tortured on multiple occasions. In 2024, fearing for his life, Mojtaba fled the country. He entered the U.S. through Mexico in late 2024 and turned himself over to Border Patrol agents to start asylum proceedings. Initially detained in Texas, he had no access to legal counsel and struggled to navigate the complex asylum process on his own.   In mid-2025, however, he was transferred to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. There, he qualified for free legal help under a state program that funds legal services for immigrants facing deportation, the Detention and Deportation Defense Initiative. AFSC NJ Immigrant Rights Program is a primary provider for the initiative.  Having a good lawyer can make all the difference. Detained immigrants with legal representation are 10.5 times more likely to win their cases.  Rachel was indeed a qualified attorney, but raising $35,000 for a client’s bond wasn’t something she’d ever had to do.  “I’ve always believed in holistic representation,” Rachel says. “I do this work because I believe in my clients’ humanity and resilience, and it’s my job to fight alongside them to help them secure the safety and future they deserve. Raising $35,000 was never something I expected to be part of that work. But after everything Mojtaba had been through, I knew that once his bond was set, I would do whatever it took to secure his release.” Rachel did what she could. She called every organization she knew of that paid immigration bonds. She set up a personal fundraising webpage that she shared with her entire contact list. And she urged local grassroots immigrant rights organizations and influencers to post about Mojtaba’s case on their social media accounts.  Rachel secured the $35,000 within a couple of weeks. The money came from the Envision Freedom Fund and First Friends of New Jersey and New York, along with over 100 individual donations from everyday people. Layout Type Full width Background color White Details Image Caption Mojtaba and Rachel run to meet each other upon his release from Delaney Hall. Image Credit Henry Craver Image Image Background color White Paragraph On May 14, Mojtaba walked out of Delaney Hall. Rachel and one of the men Mojtaba had been detained with—who had been released a couple months earlier—were waiting for him outside the gates. They ran to meet each other and embraced. After 17 months, Mojtaba was finally free.  “It’s an incredible feeling,” Mojtaba says today. “It was such a long and dark road, but now I’m free and a whole new life is in front of me.” Layout Type Full width Background color White Paragraph Learn more about AFSC’s New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program. Layout Type Full width Background color White Intro Section Description An Iranian asylum seeker’s struggle for freedom exposes the cruelty of our immigration system. Featured media caption Mojtaba hugs a friend outside of the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey. Featured media credit Henry Craver Left Side CTA title Support AFSC’s New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program Left side CTA URL https://secure.afsc.org/eDUVXogcmk6ZIPFamz3EQQ2?ms=WEB26PP Open in new tab Off Featured image Image Location New Jersey Byline By Henry Craver Newsroom type Update Programs New Jersey Immigrant Rights Sort date Wed, 07/29/2026 – 12:00

AFSC Releases New Restorative Justice Toolkit jkrieg@afsc.org Tue, 07/28/2026 – 15:54 Main content Paragraph Fatimeh Khan, co-director of AFSC’s California Healing Justice Program, announces the release of a new Restorative Justice Toolkit. In this interview, she discusses what the toolkit includes, why it was created, and how it can support people and communities seeking a deeper understanding of restorative justice.What is restorative justice?  Restorative justice asks us to respond to harm with accountability, repair, and care, not punishment alone. It invites us to slow down, name what happened, understand who was affected, and work together to determine what is needed to make things as right as possible. Rather than focusing only on the person who caused harm or the rule that was broken, restorative justice recognizes that harm affects people, relationships, and communities. Restorative justice is not a single program, script, or quick fix. It is a values-based approach rooted in dignity, accountability, relationship, repair, and community care. It does not mean excusing harm, avoiding consequences, or forcing forgiveness. At its best, restorative justice creates conditions for truth-telling, meaningful accountability, healing, and changed behavior. Why did AFSC create the Restorative Justice (RJ) Toolkit? The RJ Toolkit was created in response to the needs expressed by our communities, as well as several significant developments and challenges that have emerged in the restorative justice field over the last few years. One of the developments that made the need for this toolkit especially clear was the passage of AB 60 in California in 2023. The law requires that survivors of crime be informed that restorative justice programs may be available to them. This is significant because the criminal legal system often focuses on what law was broken and what punishment should follow, while restorative justice creates space for survivors to be heard in a fuller way—to describe how the harm affected their lives, ask questions, name what they need to feel safer, and help shape what accountability should look like. That might include receiving honest answers, hearing the person who caused harm take responsibility, putting safety agreements in place, exploring other forms of repair, and creating clear commitments to prevent the harm from happening again. For some survivors, this can feel more validating and empowering because they have a more active role in the process and greater agency in deciding what they need, what questions they want answered, and what meaningful accountability should involve. This offers something different from a process in which lawyers, courts, and prosecutors largely determine how a case moves forward, what information matters, and what outcome is pursued. But simply notifying someone that RJ exists is not enough. Although the California Attorney General has a website with some information about restorative justice, survivors need a fuller and more accessible understanding of what RJ is, how it works, and what it could offer before they can say, “This is something I want to ask for.” Over the past few years, our work on several restorative justice–centered bills revealed another significant gap: many legislators do not fully understand what RJ is or how it works. That lack of understanding made it extremely difficult to advance meaningful policy. Bills were often changed in drastic ways that weakened their original purpose and, in some cases, ultimately prevented them from moving forward. This experience further demonstrated the need for a resource that could build a clearer and more grounded understanding of restorative justice among policymakers and others engaging with RJ. What is the current state of RJ? There is much more attention on restorative justice today than there was even a few years ago. More people are hearing the term “restorative justice” and developing at least some familiarity with the concept. For example, when AFSC and its partners gave a presentation on RJ to the Prosecutors Alliance last year, many of the district attorneys were already familiar with the term, and a significant number responded positively to the ideas and possibilities behind restorative justice. That growing awareness is encouraging. We are seeing a broader shift in people’s exposure to RJ, their understanding of it, and their openness to considering how it can be used. How will the toolkit help? Our toolkit gives people an opportunity to engage with restorative justice in a deeper and more expansive way. It explores where restorative practices come from and what makes an approach truly restorative, rather than focusing only on practices that have been adapted within certain institutions and labeled as “RJ.” The toolkit also explains the core elements and values of restorative justice while recognizing that RJ is not a single, fixed model. Restorative practices can and should be shaped around the needs, culture, and circumstances of the communities using them, while remaining grounded in key restorative values. For example, the toolkit examines South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We would not describe the commission as a complete restorative justice model, but it incorporated important restorative elements and was developed in response to the specific history and needs of that society. We place that example alongside the approaches used in Rwanda following the genocide, as well as community responses to racial segregation and civil rights conflicts in the United States. By examining these different examples, the toolkit shows that restorative justice can take many forms and can be used by communities responding to very different kinds of harm, conflict, and injustice. What else does the toolkit include? The toolkit also includes a wide range of engaging resources, including books, podcasts, films, television shows, and other forms of visual media. These resources offer people different ways to learn about and connect with restorative justice beyond more traditional entry points, such as attending a workshop, knowing an RJ practitioner, or already being involved in the work. By bringing together different types of media and learning tools, the toolkit opens up multiple pathways for people to explore RJ in ways that feel accessible, relevant, and meaningful to them. For more about AFSC’s work for Restorative Justice in California, please check out this earlier interview with Fatimeh.  Layout Type Full width Background color White Intro Section Description New resource offers practical tools and clear definitions for understanding restorative justice Featured media caption In one model of Restorative Justice from the 1960s, C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader at the time, and Ann Atwater, a Black civil rights organizer, worked together to plan a community discussion about school desegregation in North Carolina. They later became very good friends. Featured media credit Facing History 2016 Open in new tab Off Featured image Image Newsroom type Update Programs Healing Justice – CA Sort date Tue, 07/28/2026 – 12:00

Restorative Justice Toolkit jkrieg@afsc.org Tue, 07/28/2026 – 15:49 Featured Image Image Or select from hosted files Document final-afsc-restorative-justice-toolkit-digital-6.19.26.pdf Show download link Off