All eyes were on Iowa, where motivated activists in both parties were caucusing to determine who heads to New Hampshire as the voter-sanctioned frontrunner of the 2016 race. Awaiting the results of a process that could stretch well into the wee hours, some advocates lamented the anti-democratic nature of a system that requires participants to spend hours away from family on a weeknight to choose their leaders—“effectively disenfranchising large segments of the electorate,” as the Center for American Progress outlet ThinkProgress put it.  Others reflected on the fact that the demographics are changing, as the state’s Latino population rises swiftly from a small base. Needless to say, the results will help determine the shape and tenor of the campaign dialogue about immigration and counterterrorism in the days to come.

President Obama announced plans to pay a visit this week to the Islamic Center of Baltimore, which tends to the spiritual, educational and housing needs of thousands of adherents, making it among the largest Muslim centers in the mid-Atlantic region. The idea for the visit—Obama’s first in the U.S., though he has visited several mosques overseas—arose from a meeting with advocates to discuss combating Islamophobia last month. Grantee Farhana Khera, ED of Muslim Advocates, is quoted in the piece about urging Obama to consider inviting former President George W. Bush to accompany him to give the trip bipartisan appeal. “I think it would be enormously comforting and also send a powerful  message to Americans about recommitting to religious freedom—especially if we had Bush and Obama visit together,” she said at that meeting.

The House Judiciary Committee holds a closed-door hearing Tuesday on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, which empowers the Justice Department and the director of National Intelligence to conduct spy operations overseas. Grantees the ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology are among a number of civil-liberties and technology organizations that have petitioned the committee to open the hearing to the public. This conversation occurs in the wake of a New York Times report that tech companies believe the government has plenty of tools to ward off terrorist plots, despite law enforcement’s argument that encryption has them flying blind.

On Thursday, House Judiciary conducts a hearing on the surge of refugees from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America. America’s Voice and Kids in Need of Defense are among the grantees holding a press call afterwards, aimed at countering negative narratives about this migrant population and discussing what actions can be taken to help ensure due process and fair treatment of people fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.  

Among other grantee activities:

--Human Rights First President Elisa Massimino is among the panelists at a New York discussion of the world refugee crisis and what more nations can do to help address it.

--The National Network of Arab American Communities was among the groups taking part in the Let Freedom Ring challenge, a call for racial healing kicked off at the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Va., one of the nation’s oldest African-American churches.

--The 6th Annual Fred Korematsu Day celebration took place Saturday in San Francisco, honoring the man who battled the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II. The theme of the event was “Re(ad)dressing Racial Injustice: From Japanese American Incarceration to Anti-Muslim Bigotry.” Muslim Advocates was among the grantees represented at the celebration.

--Grantees shared articles in The New Republic and The Atlantic on the roots of the current Republican stance on immigration reform, and its potential electoral implications.