LOS ANGELES – Leaders from community, labor and religious organizations launched a major campaign for immigration reform in 30 cities across the nation May 15.
The ‘Million Voices for Legalization’ campaign aims to collect one million postcards calling on President Bush and the Congress to pass legislation that ‘support immigration policies that reward work by giving hardworking, tax paying immigrants already in the United States the opportunity to earn legal status.’
Organizations participating on the campaign include United Farm Workers, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union,the National Legalization Movement, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and many others.
Last month, a broad pro-immigrant labor/community/religious coalition in Los Angeles held a ‘Baile de Trabajadores’ (Dance of the workers), at the Los Angeles Sports Arena where over 18,000 immigrant workers participated in a concert/dance which began the postcard campaign in this city. Prominent Latino artists, like Los Tigres del Norte rocked the arena as they joined in the call for legalization.
Featured speakers at that event were Eliseo Medina, executive international vice president of the Service Employees International Union, who is spearheading the immigration reform campaign, Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, and Maria Elena Durazo, President of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 11. Close to 100 representatives of immigrant rights organizations representing Los Angeles? multiracial, multinational communities held hands on stage to express their unity in this campaign.
Full coverage of the legalization campaign will be featured in next week’s issue of the People?s Weekly World.
The author can be reached at
CONTRIBUTOR
Comments