CCI hosts packed high-energy Fair Immigration Reform workshop
CCI's March 21st Fair Immigration Reform Meeting was packed- over 125 people crowded into a standing-room only meeting.
In the high-energy workshop, CCI laid out the current immigration landscape locally and nationally, moved people to action, and shared powerful testimony:“I had been waiting for months and months, not being able to travel outside the US, because I was in the process to get my papers fixed. One night, I got a terrible phone call from my family in Mexico: My mother, the person I loved the most in the world, had died. And my world came crumbling down... this immigration system kept me from saying my last goodbye to her..." -CCI Member Maria Hernandez
Guest speaker Veronica Castro, Immigrant Justice Campaign Director at National People's Action (NPA), emphasized that current immigration proposals fall short, including those that the "Gang of 8" senators and President Obama have released.In a telling exercise, Castro asked members of the audience to move to one side of the room if current immigration reform proposals would make them them eligible for citizenship, and to move to the other side of the room if current immigration reform proposals deemed them ineligible for citizenship. What we saw was telling- 70 percent of the audience would not be eligible for citizenship under current immigration reform proposals. Castro went on to say that "...this is the only chance we have to pass good comprehensive immigration reform that doesn't tear our families apart.
"We're part of a national movement demanding fair immigration reform- Thursday's meeting was only a first step. CCI member Victor Torres highlighted the upcoming "Easter Recess" as an opportunity to deliver testimonies of everyday people to legislators that will be returning to Iowa. We demand:
a pathway to citizenship for all
an end to deportations
immigrant workers as part of community- not commodities
legalization before border security
Looking to the future, CCI will be taking our immigration reform message on the road. On April 20th-22, a delegation of 22 CCI members (including 9 Latino leaders) will head to D.C. to defend fair immigration reform to legislators. During April and May, CCI will host meetings throughout Iowa to challenge communities to work for fair immigration reform and join the national fight to grant a path to citizenship for all 11 million. "And that is why I ask you tonight, will you join me, will you join us? Will you stand with me and my family to fight to change this broken system?” -CCI member Maria Hernandez