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Historic Black City Leads Fight for Immigration Reform, Passes Resolution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baltimore City Council expresses support for President Obama’s efforts to fix America’s broken immigration system
Tuesday, Aug 11, 2009 Contact: Mary
Moreno, (202) 339-9316, mmoreno@communitychange.org
Washington – Last night, the Baltimore City Council, a predominantly African American body led by President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, passed a resolution supporting passage at the federal level of comprehensive immigration reform that allows undocumented immigrants an earned path to citizenship. The resolution recognizes the contributions already made by the city’s more than 37,000 immigrants, and the commonalities of the struggles faced by African Americans and immigrants.
“We applaud the Baltimore City
Council for passing this resolution supporting comprehensive immigration
reform,” said Marissa Graciosa, director of the
Fair Immigration Reform Movement. “The Council illustrated that immigration
reform is not solely a Latino issue. Like any major issue, immigration reform
needs the expressed support of all Americans. This resolution reminds us that
building healthy communities depends on our ability to see ourselves in people
who may seem different on the surface.
“At a time when our economy is
ailing, we can’t afford to exclude a segment of our population. We need
resolutions like these that bring our communities together. We hope other cities
and communities will follow suit. We’re all in this together, and our country
will only move forward if we work together.”
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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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