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Dear Friends,
On behalf of the Appleseed Foundation Board of Directors, we are thrilled to announce the appointment of Benet Magnuson as Interim Executive Director for the Appleseed Foundation. Benet has been a member of the Appleseed family for more than a decade. In 2009, he joined Appleseed's immigrant financial access project as its Harvard Law School Kaufman‐Skirnick Fellow, and he served as Executive Director for Kansas Appleseed from 2013 to 2019. Under his leadership, Kansas Appleseed grew from a one-person Center to a staff of twelve, tackling ambitious projects to protect children in the state’s custody, expand civic engagement, reform the state’s criminal justice systems, and repair the broken safety net. These are hard times, but we firmly believe it is also a time of hope. We take comfort knowing you – and the tens of thousands of supporters throughout the Appleseed Network – share our commitment to confront the deep-rooted injustices that are weighing down our society. And we find inspiration in the profound work of the 16 Appleseed Centers, whose community-driven, systemic advocacy is building a more just world for us all. Thank you again for all the support you have shown Appleseed. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Benet at bmagnuson@AppleseedNetwork.org to share your advice for Appleseed, or just to say hello. We know he is eager to hear from you. Sincerely, Raymond Lin Co-Chair of the Board of Directors Brian Boyle Co-Chair of the Board of Directors Mary Morningstar Chair Elect of the Board of Directors The Appleseed Network celebrates the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on Thursday morning, June 18th, in favor of blocking the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Court found that the Trump administration’s September 2017 move to terminate the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” and that the impact of the program’s termination on DACA recipients – at least 650,000 young immigrants brought to the US as children – was not properly taken into account.
America is hurting. The unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others have sparked a national movement to hold our leaders accountable for the insidious racial inequality that penetrates both consciously and unconsciously throughout American society. People across the nation are fighting to overcome generations of pain caused by white supremacy, racial injustice, police brutality, and a broken criminal justice system that penalizes Black citizens at disproportionate rates. This is increasingly obvious as we are suffering through a global pandemic that is impacting communities of color at far higher rates than white communities due to the inequities these communities are forced to endure. We continue to see the over-policing of Black communities and the unjust use of force against Black citizens. Segregated schools and segregated educational opportunities reproduce inequality and racial disparities. These societal issues entrench racial injustice in our schools, neighborhoods, and jobs, which ultimately lead to the violence perpetrated against innocent people such as George Floyd.
On January 21, 2020, the Appleseed Foundation, and multiple Appleseed Centers (Chicago Appleseed, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, Kansas Appleseed, Louisiana Appleseed, Nebraska Appleseed, New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, and Texas Appleseed) submitted a Comment Letter to the CFPB on Remittance Transfers Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. You can read our full comment here.
Please join us on Wednesday, February 5, for a conversation on reducing the footprint of the criminal justice system while making it fairer, more equitable, and more effective. We will be joined by Ed Chung, Vice President for Criminal Justice Reform at American Progress. Mr. Chung will share his thoughts on policies and legislation around comprehensive public safety strategies, sentencing and prison reform, opportunities for those who are justice-involved, and more. The Mansion on O Street 2020 O St. NW | Washington, DC 02.05.20 | 6 PM - 8 PM Cocktails and appetizers RSVP by 01.31.20 at http://bit.ly/Feb2020SeedsofLearning or via email at events@appleseednetwork.org. P.S. If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact Elisa Ortiz via email or at 202.347.7973.
Rupa Shenoy, a reporter for PRI's The World, recently published a story titled "Fearing detention, undocumented immigrants seek ways to appoint guardians for their children". Appleseed is humbled to have contributed to this important story about a very pressing family issue.
From the story: "Many undocumented immigrants in the US have been living with the threat of deportation for years — and those who are parents have an additional fear: What will happen to their children if they’re detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement?" “To be honest, we did not have an answer,' said Elisa Ortiz at the Appleseed Network — a nonprofit group in Washington, DC, that works on social justice issues. They started looking into this in 2017....She said most states don’t have laws in place that allow parents to appoint guardians in the event of their detention or deportation....Activists, lawyers and immigrants across the country have been trying to find solutions." We've been working on this issue along with our incredible pro bono partners Latham & Watkins LLP and will soon be able to share guidance with immigrant families and practitioners about standby guardianship laws in their states or U.S. territories. Please stay tuned!  Save the Date! Our next Seeds of Learning event will take place on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 6pm. Please stay tuned for more info about our speaker and location in the New Year.
As we come to a close on Appleseed’s 25th anniversary year, we look back at achievements and accomplishments from around the Network. In this issue of our newsletter, you can find updates about our 25th Anniversary celebration, our Seeds of Learning event in September 2019, a spotlight on the work of Alabama Appleseed, and much more.
We look forward to another 25 (plus) years of developing sustainable solutions to social justice issues. We rely on our supporters to be able to continue our work - we urge you to consider becoming a donor and help us achieve our goals of making society more just and equitable for all. Find the full newsletter below: On Tuesday, September 17, Appleseed hosted the fourth installment in our “Seeds of Learning” event series at Teddy & the Bully Bar in downtown DC. We were excited to welcome Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) to discuss the organization’s recent report, “The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy.” The report highlights how tax policy is both a symptom and an instrument of systemic racism.
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