About the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition

Sixty years ago, 900 Jews aboard the ship St. Louis approached United States shores seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. When the United States turned them away, hundreds of the men, women and children aboard the ship perished in the Holocaust.

Still today, arrival on US shores does not guarantee protection from persecution. Today's immigration laws have diminished basic civil rights and eliminated many forms of relief. From the use of "secret evidence" in immigration cases to "shotgun" procedures for asylum seekers at the airports, immigrants and refugees are the victims of a human and civil rights crisis.

The crisis is particularly great in the Washington, DC area where one out of nine immigrants is a war refugee or someone seeking political asylum. Immigrant children and families in Washington come from over 180 different countries with the greatest number coming from El Salvador, followed by Vietnam, South Korea, India, the Phillippines, China, Iran, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Pakistan. These immigrants are changing the face of the city and suburbs and having an enormous effect on the economic and civic life in the Washington region, including schools, work places, community health clinics, private industry and government.