A project of the Center for Community Change

FIRM Spotlight

DACA’s One-year Anniversary

Posted by Jingru H on June 17, 2013

131A year ago, President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for young people who were brought to the U.S. when they were children by their immigrant parents. The program is a reprieve from deportation and a chance for DREAMers to get a work permit, which has helped transform many lives. As an immigrant, I may not understand their fear of being taken away, but I do understand the fear of losing everything you have been building.

I think the essence of coming to America is giving people infinite opportunities to make impossibilities become possible.

When I was in my native China, I was spoiled and highly dependent on my parents. I was an average student who couldn’t dig into my deeper soul and know what I wanted because I had everything prepared by my parents. I didn’t know how to cook, never worked, never paid a bill. I didn’t know people were struggling with discrimination issues. I could never imagine that families were being torn apart. My only concern in life was studying hard, getting good grades, attending a top university and graduating.

After my family came to the U.S., I began to realize what I was capable of. I could hold two part-time jobs while I worked to earn my G.E.D. I could pay the bills for my entire family all on my own. I could work as a Registered Nursing Assistant even though biology was never my strong suit. I could gain acceptance into U.C. Berkeley, one of the best universities in the world, and then be selected to attend their U.C. Washington Center program. I could be hired to work on immigration reform at the Center for Community Change, first as an intern and now as a fellow.

I’m so grateful for all that I’ve been able to accomplish. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t come to the U.S. And I’m now fighting for DREAMers who have the same enthusiasm and hope for the future as I do. We should all be granted equal status so that we can make our lives better and contribute to the country we love.

Immigrant Rights Organizations Announce Next Steps in Fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Posted by Sarah English on April 25, 2013

For Immediate Release
April 25, 2013

Contact:
Donna De La Cruz, ddelacruz@communitychange.org, 202-339-9331, 202-441-3798 (cell)
Spanish Language Media:
Ricardo Ramírez, rramirez@communitychange.org, 202-339-9371, 202-905-1738 (cell)

Major Actions Include May 1st Events, Children’s Marches, Vigils, Congressional Visits

(WASHINGTON)—The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a coalition of the nation’s largest and most powerful immigrant rights groups today announced its next steps in the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. FIRM will have a constant presence at the Capitol, conduct thousands of lobby visits, deliver of thousands of photos of families torn apart by the broken immigration system, host massive turnout events across the country on May 1st, lead children’s marches on Mother’s Day and conduct prayer vigils.

“This past election cycle demonstrated our enormous and growing political power. We will harness that power – on the streets, online, through our massive phone banking programs, historic voter engagement and lobbying by immigrant families themselves – to improve this bill and move immigration reform forward now,” said FIRM spokesperson Kica Matos.

“Every day that Congress fails to pass immigration reform legislation, 1100 families are torn apart. It is immoral and cruel that family members who would be eligible for citizenship under this bill are being detained and deported even as we speak,” Matos added. “We are calling on the Administration to put a moratorium on all deportations while Congress debates the bill.”

As the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first markup session on the Gang of Eight’s bill, members of CASA in Action held a vigil on Capitol Hill to remind the Senators of the families greatly affected by our broken immigration system.

“FIRM commends the introduction of the Senate’s immigration bill as a historic step toward humane policy reform but there is a lot of room for improvement. FIRM will fight to improve it even as we are working to move it forward,” Matos said. “Immigrant families will be a constant presence as much as possible on the Hill. Senators must not put politics over people.”

As the immigration debate goes on, FIRM will keep the focus on families with May 1st events taking place nationwide, children’s marches on Mother’s Day, thousands of lobby visits, the delivery of thousands of photos of undocumented immigrants and vigils.

Following is a list of May 1st events:

Birmingham, AL
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice
More than 3,000 people will march through Birmingham; the march will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Linn Park (710 20th St. N, Birmingham, Alabama).

Phoenix, AZ
Promise Arizona
At 5:30 p.m. crowds will rally at the State Capitol in Phoenix and march to the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix.

Los Angeles, CA
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
30,000 people will gather at noon for a kick-off rally at Olympic and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. They will march to La Placita Olvera.

Oakland, CA
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
At 3:00 p.m., 5,000 will gather at the Fruitvale BART for a rally and march.

Denver, CO
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition
There will be a community rally and march beginning at 11:00 a.m. on the west steps of the Capitol.

Boise, ID
Alliance for a Just Society
Thousands are expected to participate in a march in Boise, Idaho.
Marchers will begin arriving at Julia Davis Park at 4:00 p.m.; the program will begin at 5:00 p.m. and the march to the Capitol will start at 6:00 p.m.

Chicago, IL
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)
2 p.m.: Rally kicks off in Union Park (Ashland and Lake). The march will begin at 3:00 p.m. with a rally at the Haymarket memorial (Randolph and Desplaines) at 3:30 and a rally at Federal Plaza (Jackson and Dearborn) at 4:00 p.m.

Portland, ME
Maine People’s Alliance
The Maine People’s Alliance will join with faith, labor, community rights and other groups at 4:00 p.m. The march will begin at 6:00 p.m. in Lincoln Park on Congress Street.

Bozeman, MT
Montana Organizing Project
Buses from five Montana cities will drop participants off at Lindley Park. Participants will gather in the park for salsa line dance lessons and refreshments at 1:00 p.m. and at 1:45 p.m. they will march down Main Street to the front of the Bozeman Public Library.

Las Vegas, NV
Reno, NV
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN)
10,000 people are expected to join PLAN and a coalition of labor, faith, civic, community and other immigrant rights groups as they rally at 4:30 p.m. at the federal building in downtown Las Vegas.

In Reno, PLAN’s march will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Reno City Plaza.

New York, NY
The New York Immigrant Coalition (NYIC)
NYIC will join with labor unions, immigrant rights groups and immigrants in a large rally. Tens of thousands of immigrants and supporters are expected to attend.
4 p.m. start at Union Square that will end at City Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Cleveland, OH
Ohio Organizing Collaborative and Ohio Prophetic Voices
At 5 p.m. there will be a rally in the public square in downtown Cleveland.

Salem, OR
CAUSA Oregon
5,000 people from across the state will rally on the steps of the Capitol in Salem at 11:00 a.m.

Washington State
OneAmerica
OneAmerica will host six marches statewide in Wenatchee, Yakima, Spokane, Walla Walla, Vancouver and Mount Vernon.
Wenatchee march: 6 p.m., Lincoln Park.
Yakima march: 5:30 pm, Miller Park.
Spokane march: 1 pm, Riverfront Park.
Walla Walla march: 5 pm, Jefferson Park.
Vancouver march: 6 pm, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s office.
Mt. Vernon march: 3:30 pm, Skagit Valley College.

Milwaukee, WI
Voces de la Frontera
Voces de la Frontera will march with elected officials and leaders from labor, public education, faith, civil rights and the LGBT community. Thousands of people are expected to attend.
The groups will assemble at Voces de la Frontera at 11:00 a.m. (1027 S. 5th St., Milwaukee). They will march to Pere Marquette Park (at 3rd and State) for a mass rally.

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FIRM Spotlight: Students in WI force Rep. Ryan to distance himself from FAIR

Posted by Rachel L. on October 14, 2009

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been forced to rewrite his own history in the past few days. Ryan recently granted an interview to FAIR (the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform) during their “Hold their Feet to the Fire” event here in Washington, DC last month.

For those of you who are regular readers, you are familiar with FAIR. For those of you who aren’t, the rundown is this: they are a designated hate group by the SPLC and are a part of the John Tanton network that has extensive ties to the White Supremacist movement. In short, they are the force working against our pro-immigrant movement.

Students working with Voces de la Frontera, a FIRM partner, in Racine, WI organized a rally against Rep. Ryan for his involvement with FAIR. From local newspaper the Journal:

A group of about 50 people marched outside of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s Downtown Racine office at 216 Sixth St. on Tuesday, angered by the Janesville Republican’s decision to grant an interview during an event sponsored by an immigration reform organization in Washington, D.C.

Apparently, the students made a big impact: that same day Rep. Ryan released a statement distancing himself from FAIR and his name has since been pulled from their website as a “participant” in last month’s “Hold their Feet to the Fire” event.

It is so important for lawmakers and the media to recognize groups like FAIR for what they really are: extremists. Many of these groups (and especially FAIR) can all be traced to one central figure, John Tanton.

“He’s a central player in the organization. He’s not some ancillary guy. He’s got this terrible legacy,” Beirich said of Tanton, who ran the organization for a few decades and now serves on its board. “Frankly he’s an extremist. He’s funded white supremacist groups. He’s hung out with white supremacists.”

Congratulations to the student activists in Wisconsin for their victory yesterday.

Racine Voces de la Frontera coordinator Maria Morales also sees this as a victory.

“FAIR is a thinly veiled hate group that too often gets into the mainstream media as a legitimate counterpoint of view. When Representatives like Ryan disassociate themselves from FAIR it helps to discredit them,” she explains. “Now we need Ryan to do more. Many families in Racine are suffering because of a broken immigration system. We need him to work with us towards comprehensive immigration reform.”

Can you feel the momentum building? I can.

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