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Grassroots Submit More than 4,000 Questions for Napolitano via Text Messages, Web Site, Facebook, Twitter and Email
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Leaders meeting with the DHS secretary relay nation’s anxieties over broken immigration system
Thursday, Aug 20, 2009Contact: Mary
Moreno (202) 339-9316,
mmoreno@communitychange.org
Washington
– In an effort to truly represent the country’s concerns at today’s meeting with
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement and
national allies asked activists across the country to submit questions they
wanted Napolitano to address. The response: more than 4,000 questions submitted
in less than 24 hours.
“Most of the questions and
concerns centered around timing, on wanting immigration reform done this year,
not 2010,” said Marissa Graciosa, immigration coordinator with
FIRM, a project of the Center for Community
Change. “The questions came from all over the country. This reflects the
widespread effects of our enforcement-heavy approach to immigration.”
Ali Noorani, executive director
of the National Immigration Forum, and a partner of the Campaign to Reform
Immigration FOR America, was able to ask Napolitano two representative questions
selected from the 4,000-plus entries. The first was submitted by a person in
Pickerington,
Ohio who wanted to know why Napolitano has
seemingly focused too intently on border security and stopped advocating for
comprehensive reform. Napolitano said she has been working on immigration
reform, and would do more to communicate with people on her efforts on both
fronts.
Noorani’s other question
concerned the 287g program, which gives local law enforcement the authority to
enforce immigration law. Noorani asked Napolitano to revoke the authority of
agencies who have clearly violated the spirit of the agreement, and that the
immigration community looked forward to seeing that happen. Napolitano
responded, “Me, too.”
“We are proud to have brought the
voices of the grassroots to the meeting at the White House,” Graciosa said.
“We’ve always focused on amplifying the voices of
America’s
diverse communities, but now we’re using every available technology to do it. In
2007, millions marched. Now, those millions are moving beyond the streets to
swamp switchboards, email accounts, fax machines and the halls of Congress.”
For more information on the
Reform Immigration FOR America campaign, please visit
www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org.
###
Fair Immigration Reform Movement
(FIRM) is a coalition of
grassroots community organizations nationwide, including statewide immigrant
rights coalitions, organizing networks, faith-based groups, and low-income and
other networks organized around ethnicity or national origin, working on behalf
of comprehensive immigration reform and immigrant rights.
FIRM is convened by the
Center for Community Change.
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