Enlaces News #7 (May 2004)

Immigrants Ask “¿Qué Pasa?” with Immigration Reform

On February 9th and 10th of this year, an unprecedented gathering took place in Washington, DC. Representatives of about 30 Latin American and Caribbean immigrant-led organizations from around the country gathered in an “emergency summit”, partly motivated by the desire to respond to the announcement about immigrants and immigration that had been made by President Bush just a few weeks prior. The meeting also grew out of an increasing conviction among immigrant community-based organizations that the time is ripe to join forces to press for reform of current immigration laws, which have proven to be obsolete, unjust, and inoperable. The meeting, now known as the “Latino and Caribbean Immigrant Community Summit” included representatives of immigrant communities from México, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia y the Dominican Republic.

After two days of deliberation, the participants in this first-ever Latino Immigrant Community Summit approved a joint declaration that described the role of immigrants in the United States and a set of baseline hopes and needs that their communities have articulated with respect to immigration reform. However, the most significant outcome of the meeting was a recognition of the imperative need for strengthening coordination and collaboration among Latino immigrants in order to move forward with a national advocacy agenda.

Inspired by this first gathering, the participants reconvened in a second meeting that took place May 2nd. This Second Latino and Caribbean Community Summit sought to integrate more immigrant voices to into a coordinated effort to promote visionary structural reform of the current system of immigration laws. Even though immigrants of Latin American and Caribbean origin represent the largest percentage of all immigrants living in the US, their voices are often absent or scantily represented at decision-making tables, even for policy initiatives that will have profound effects on the lives of their communities. Participants in the national summit hope to consolidate their coordination and collaboration mechanisms in order to increase their visibility as national leaders on this issue.

At the May Summit, the Latino and Caribbean immigrant leaders hosted panel presentations that included diverse perspectives on the current state of immigration policy as well as different national process already advocating for comprehensive reform. Guest panelists included Judy Golub, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Rick Swartz, a veteran advocate for immigration rights, Gabriela Lemus, from the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, Joel Magallan, Executive Director of Asociación Tepeyac, and Pedro Aviles form the Center for Community Change. The two-day summit allowed for collective reflection and dialogue on the importance and timeliness of initiating an immigrant-led process for policy reforms.

With relative silence from the Bush Administration since the president brought the immigration issue to headlines around the globe, the group took the opportunity to pay a visit to the White House where they met with Diane Schacht, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to get briefed on the state of the president’s immigration initiative. On May 4th, participants held a press conference called on the President to move beyond rhetoric to repair and reform the nation’s incoherent migration policies. The press conference signaled the launch of a new national postcard campaign, aimed at the Bush Administration and the Kerry campaign, “Whats Happening?”, “Qué pasa?” with immigration reform and calling on officials in both parties to back up their promises with immediate concrete actions.

Participants in the Summit hope that the process launched in February and refined in May, will continue to grow and that many more Latin-American and Caribbean immigrant groups can join them in creating a national space that will leverage the work they are doing at a local level onto a national advocacy platform.

As one Summit participant put it, “we realize that if we are to be taken seriously, we must ensure that our members and constituencies not only register to vote, but that they mobilize to turn out the immigrant vote in November.” By holding a series of local forums where they can share the goals of the declaration composed during the national Summit,the group plans to create a coordinated space that can bridge the information gap between national policy initiatives and local immigrant constituencies as well as create a place where local organizations can strategize and plan activities to promote civic participation. During March and April, groups met locally in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Oakland. These meetings identified local fundraising strategies, and helped to design a national campaign that links local organizations in this national effort

A key challenge for this emerging Latino immigrant advocacy initiative will be to obtain financial resources for both local and nationally coordinated activities. Several participants have already designed innovative community fundraising efforts and have moved forward with integrated informational and resource-development campaigns on such hot-button issues as driver’s licenses for immigrants and undocumented workers’ rights. However, for this initiative to develop into a fully realized national constituency-based movement, it will require long-term financial support for a number of critical coordination and dissemination activities, as well as support to local member organizations for education and follow-up. ¦

 

Other National Immigration Reform Processes
Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) is a process that evolved from the National Coalition for Jobs and Income Support. The Center for Community Change (CCC), an entity known for its capacity building and technical assistance work with a strong anti-poverty and racial justice emphasis, has been a key facilitator of this initiative. FIRM has articulated a list of principles around immigration policy reform including legalization for undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship and priority on family unification as a way to deal with existing back logs on immigrant visa’s applications; a guest workers program that emphasizes labor rights; protection for the rights of refugees and asylees, etc. In addition to CCC, some of the state-wide and/or regional immigrant rights coalitions, as well as DC-based advocacy organizations such as the National Immigration Forum and the National Council of La Raza have been key players within FIRM. In the current Congress, they have been very supportive of the DREAM Act, as well as the SOLVE Act.

The National Movement for Legalization and Human Rights is a recently constituted nationally coordinated initiative. It is largely facilitated by the Border Human Rights Network from El Paso, TX, and involves local immigrant rights organizations from around the country and has articulated a similar set of principles as FIRM. In addition, the National Movement for Legalization and Human Rights emphasizes the need to take action in relation to the social and economic conditions in the many countries of origin of migrants and stresses the need for migration to be part of all trade and investment agreements that are being negotiated.

Project Voice is a national initiative of the Philadelphia-based American Friends Service Committee. It seeks to empower immigrant communities in order for them to be able to speak for themselves. It has established a network of regional offices throughout the U.S. with the purpose of developing local capacity building and networking activities.

National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty is a body of organizations that emerged in the aftermath of the September 1996 march for immigrant rights in Washington, DC. As it name suggests, it calls for an unconditional amnesty for all undocumented aliens residing in the U.S. During the 106th Congress, it called for the enactment of a legislative proposal called FREEDOM Act.

The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR) represents a recently launched initiative that seeks to bring together different immigration advocacy processes. Parallel to the announcement of its creation, CCIR launched a national initiative called the “New Americans Opportunity Campaign.” While the nature and specific features of this campaign are still being worked out, this process is being facilitated by Nueva Vista Group, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm, and it is directed by a board of directors that includes prominent Washington, DC-based advocacy organizations including the CCC, several labor unions and several local/state-wide immigration advocacy coalitions.

Labor Union-led Initiatives. Since the pro immigration reform declaration issued in February 2000 by the AFL-CIO, two labor unions have taken a leading role in the immigration policy advocacy work: The Services Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees (HERE) International Union. The SEIU coordinates a national initiative called “Reward Work,” and has succeeded in collecting hundreds of thousands of post cards demanding legalization for all hard-working undocumented immigrants in the U.S, from immigrant rights organizations around the country. The most visible contribution to immigration policy advocacy work by HERE was the organizing of a national initiative called “Immigrant Workers Freedom Rides,” last year. Hundreds of immigrant rights organizations from around the country supported this initiative. The Freedom Rides allowed many immigrants, some of them undocumented, to participate in educational caravans which traveled throughout the country that helped to put a human face on immigration and helped to demystify the negative and threatening context in which immigrants are often placed.

To read more about the national immigration summit please visit

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