Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigration11nov11,1,7749564.story
On November 11, 2003 the Los Angeles Times reported that "American Quakers launched a $2.4-million initiative Monday to document and challenge abuses of immigrant rights, which they argue have escalated during the national war on terrorism. The initiative, announced in San Diego by the Quakers' American Friends Service Committee, will encourage illegal immigrants to come forward and train them to record and publicize their experiences of abuse through a national network of 'human rights committees.' The 'Project Voice' initiative also will focus on crafting policies for immigration reform. 'We believe immigrants will be the vanguard of a new civil rights movement in the United States,' said Christian Ramirez, director of the committee's U.S. Mexico Border Program in San Diego... Kicking off a weeklong conference on immigrant rights, a multicultural group of about 40 committee members shared reports of what it called escalating fears of harassment among immigrants across the country."