Cross-posted from USAction:
Because we are all immigrants.
Today, leaders of USAction affiliates from across the U.S. will be coming to Washington.
Along with tens of thousands of others, we will demand that Congress fix our broken immigration system now. No more families torn apart. No more living in the shadows for 11 million aspiring citizens. No more turning immigrants into scapegoats.
We are honored to be joining important allies in this fight on stage on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
I am reminded that USAction joined this fight because we are all immigrants. We all arrived here under unimaginably diverse circumstances. And most of our ancestors would have been turned away under today’s strict laws, robbing the nation of the creative energy immigrants bring to it.
In my family, one fled the Czarist draft, one came for love of an American man – and most came just to make a new beginning and escape the dead-end poverty of their village or town. And an America that for over a century was in fact a place where you could start poor and become middle class attracted my relatives and others.
That’s the way it’s always been here, with the devastating exception of those brought here as slaves. People move in order to improve life. Centuries ago and even today, moving to make a better life for your family is one of the best things and one of the hardest things a person can do.
USAction affiliates are front and center in the fight for inclusion and prosperity for all – we know there’s no point in reforming our nation’s broken immigration system unless people have security, opportunity and prosperity once they arrive. Citizen Action of New York combined the themes of immigration and prosperity for all by attending a “Meet Your Congressman” event with Rep. Richard Hanna and dressing up as bunny rabbits. Volunteers carried baskets of eggs and messages that read, “Hatch a plan for immigration reform” and “Yes immigration reform. No sequestration.”
Virginia Organizing worked a total of eight congressional districts, holding rallies, knocking on doors, phone banking and ultimately meeting with several members of Congress. Virginia has the nation’s 10th largest immigrant community and is a key state in the fight for reform.
And before last November’s election, ProgressOhio worked with the state’s sizable Somali community, registering 2,500 voters in one week, reaching 15,613 potential voters through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking, and providing 4,488 rides to the polls.
We as Americans and as aspiring Americans believe in the freedom to be who you want to be, say what you want to say, go where you want to go. We are supposed to be the land of freedom and opportunity.
Thank you for helping us accomplish this Dream.
Because we are all immigrants.
We are USAction. We are the true majority.
Jeff Blum
Executive Director
USAction