Tully: Advocating for immigrants in the Trump era

Suddenly, I’m in the mood for meatballs.

The craving hit me hard after receiving an email Tuesday from the Immigrant Welcome Center, a fantastic Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization that helps new refugees and immigrants address issues such as education, job training and legal services. The crave-inducing email informed recipients that Mimi Blue Meatballs, which has restaurants in Carmel and on Massachusetts Ave., would be contributing a chunk of its proceeds on Friday to the nonprofit group.

“Don’t miss this opportunity to share the love of a good meatball,” the email read, “and help immigrants and refugees succeed in Indianapolis.”

Sounds like a win-win to me. So you can guess what I’ll have for dinner on Friday.

You also surely know that something else happens on Friday — something even more important than meatballs. An American inauguration. A transition of power. A new president.

President Donald Trump.

Given the tenor of Trump’s campaign — and his divisive rhetoric about immigration — it’s understandable that many of us see more value than ever in groups like the Immigrant Welcome Center. Apparently, that appreciative view is keeping the team over there quite busy these days.

“We’ve had a very keen interest in us since Nov. 8,” Executive Director Terri Morris Downs told me on Tuesday. “We’ve had more first-time donors than ever before. We’ve had more volunteers. If there is any silver lining to the election of Donald Trump, it is that it is has activated a lot of people to become engaged in social justice issues.”

As wonderful as that was to hear, I should pause and make a point: I know a lot of you voted for Donald Trump and that you likely did so because you felt he offered the best chance to bring positive change to the country. That’s absolutely fine with me, and it’s your right to be excited and optimistic about the new administration. Just as it is the right of others to be nervous about the new president and the changes he might implement.

Count me as a member of the nervous crowd. The very, very nervous crowd.

And count me as one who is happy that organizations like the Immigrant Welcome Center not only exist but might emerge stronger from the change that is about to happen. They’ll have to be, given the concerns about how aggressively Trump will seek to put his inflammatory words into action.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Downs said. “There is a fear of families being divided, and of (those who were brought here as children) being deported. That is not what this country is about, and I’m hearing from a lot of people who want to know how to stand up against that. It’s at a level I haven’t seen in the nine years I have been here.”

Her group asked for help so that it could provide winter necessities to families that had recently arrived in America, and the response was an unprecedented outpouring of support. Meantime, new groups, such as Women 4 Change Indiana, which will also benefit from sales on Friday, have organically formed to fight back against some of the ugliness we’ve seen. That’s another wonderful silver lining, Downs said. And while she has heard about more mean-spirited comments aimed at immigrants, including at students in our schools, she said the reaction among supporters new and old has left her feeling positive.

That, she said, is because, “I know what we will be doing in our community in the coming years. We are going to continue to welcome immigrants and refugees to Indianapolis, and be that wonderful face of Hoosier hospitality.”

If you want to directly support the organization, go to immigrantwelcomecenter.org. Money contributed will help families and individuals make the transition to their new country, funding initiatives such as legal clinics and educational programs. The group is also stepping up efforts to make the case to the broader public about the positive impact of immigration on our state.

Friday’s initiative is the result of Rabbi Sandy Sasso of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck hearing about restaurants in Washington, D.C. donating Inauguration Day proceeds to area nonprofits. With that in mind, Sasso reached out to Downs to see if the same thing could be done here. Before long, Mimi Blue Meatballs had signed up to help. The company said on its Facebook page that it wanted to “promote equality, justice and tolerance.”

So, yes, many of us are nervous about the change that is about to come to our government and our country, just as so many others spent the past eight years worrying about a different brand of change. That’s fine. That’s America. But here’s the bottom line: This is a really good time to support organizations fighting for the causes you believe in.

You can do so by having a meatball on Friday, sending a check to a good nonprofit or offering to volunteer. You won’t only be giving money or time to the group, Downs said. You’ll also be sending a message that needs to be sent.

Thank you for reading. Please follow me on Twitter:@matthewltully.

Mimi Blue Meatballs has two locations: 870 Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis, and 12505 Old Meridian Street in Carmel.