Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003B. Example: 245(i)– (5 minutes)1. Introductiona. Some of you may be familiar with a campaign to extend something called245(i), a section of the U.S. immigration law that allows people to have theirgreen card interview here in United States rather than having to go back totheir home countries. It was very important because it meant many morepeople would have success in becoming green card holders than before.b. The law was set to expire in 1997. It would be bad news if did expire. Therewas lots of advocacy around the issue by policy experts and attorneys to get itcontinued, but no input from immigrants themselves.c. ILRC held community meetings in rural California to tell immigrants aboutthis law and other immigration issues. The immigrants expressed concern andwanted to do something about it.2. A grassroots immigrant campaign started, complementing the work of the policyexperts and the attorneys and accomplishing the following:a. Sent 35,000 petitions to congressional representatives in Washington, D.C.b. Conducted a community education campaign using meetings and media topublicize the issue and have immigrants themselves explain the hardships,such as family separation, that the lack of an extension would cause.c. Held meetings between immigrants and congressional representatives.d. Set up grassroots immigrant organizations and networked with immigrantorganizations and other organizations to address the topic.C. Example of community support in response to a van accident where the communityrallied together to raise money for the funeral expenses for several Mexican farmworkers who died in a van accident on their way to work in the fields. These effortsnot only raised money but also brought attention to the public safety issue of farmlabor contractors placing farm workers in unsafe situations.D. Discussion: In the example of the INS raid in San Jose, how would you buildcommunity support? –(10 minutes)1. Could community support be helpful? Why? Why not?12-30