Get to Know Our Campaign for Immigration Justice
This year, we’ve started a campaign for immigration justice. And in this newsletter, we wanted to tell you a little bit more about what our campaign looks like, what we are fighting for, and what we’ve been getting up to.
But first — we’re heading to DC!
As a member of the New York Immigration Coalition, we’re bringing a bus to Washington D.C. for a mobilization to support a #CleanDREAMAct and protection of TPS!
If you want to join the bus in Poughkeepsie or Middletown on December 6th — respond to this email and we will send you more details! There will be several more buses leaving from different cities across New York state.
Our Campaign for Immigration Justice
Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are facing perilous conditions. Deportation is a massive and growing threat. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is targeting all undocumented immigrants, and the rescinding of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is putting 800,000 young immigrants at risk. Undocumented immigrants lack forms of official identification, which leaves them unable to access essential services; vulnerable to exploitation by employers, landlords, and the police; and unable to legally drive in areas without adequate public transportation. Lack of a form of official identification is one of the primary reasons undocumented immigrants end up being deported. When immigrants cannot produce forms of legal identification, police will often call ICE to “verify” their identities, which then leads to their deportation. Being pulled over by police while driving is an especially common situation that results in deportation for no other reason than that undocumented immigrants cannot produce a license.
Our Immigrant Justice Campaign works to address these conditions by organizing and winning concrete gains for immigrants, undocumented immigrants in particular.
Our Immigrant Justice Campaign organizes immigrants in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state to win demands such as statewide driver’s license accessibility, municipal IDs, a clean DREAM Act, and protection for all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Our work for driver’s license accessibility is conducted as a member of the New York Immigration Coalition and the “Green Light New York Driving Together” statewide campaign, which is made up of immigrant communities, advocates, and allies.
So What’s Been Going On?
To build the power we need to win victories in our immigration justice campaign, we’ve been working hard to recruit new members and develop the leadership of our existing immigrant members. We’ve spoken with over 700 people at different community events, meetings, and classes. We’ve had membership meetings in Poughkeepsie and Orange County, and a forum in Middletown. And in doing so, we’ve grown our membership to three more cities across the Hudson Valley. We’ve held trainings and a retreat to develop the skills and political analyses of our staff and Leadership Team.
We know that we cannot win immigration justice alone. That’s why we’ve worked to build relationships with allied organizations and advocates, particularly as a member of the New York Immigration Coalition and its “Green Light New York Driving Together” Campaign. In September, we joined allies at US House Representative John Faso’s office to call on him to push forward a Clean DREAM Act. Our member Alan (a pseudonym), a DACA recipient, spoke to journalist Sarah Jaffe about his story and our work: https://billmoyers.com/story/dreams-die-hard-go-daca/.
Recently, we met with US House Representative Sean Patrick Maloney to call on him to pass a Clean DREAM Act to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth without punitive immigration enforcement or criminalization.
To continue building power and our campaign for immigration justice, we are holding a fundraising drive to raise $30,000 before December 8th. Will you help us reach our goal by making a donation?
