Summit 1

Last week, as many of you know, I was busy live-blogging (and staffing) the Reform Immigration FOR America Summit here in Washington, DC. Thankfully, there were plenty of others adding their own perspective to the blogosphere, namely: Maegan la Mamita Mala at VivirLatino, Kyle DeBeausset at Citizen Orange (both of whom were posting at the Sanctuary – here and here), Jackie Mahendra at America’s Voice, Dave Neiwert of Crooks and Liars, Dream Activist, Seth Hoy at Immigration Impact, Katherine Vargas at ImmPolitic blog , Marisa Trevino at Latina Lista and Jill Garvey of Imagine 2050 – to name a few.

It was an energizing (and exhausting) few days spent with over 800 advocates, activists and leaders in an unprecedented push for comprehensive immigration reform.

summit capito hill

Between an amazing Town Hall, our takeover of Capitol Hill and the jam packed lineup of great speakers, the Summit proved that the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign is a force to be reckoned with. While not all the coverage of the campaign was positive (from both bloggers and the media), I think Jackie Mahendra at America’s Voice summarized nicely by saying:

One common thread between all of it was a feeling of great momentum and renewed energy to get reform done, and get it done soon.

The overall feeling coming out of the summit is just that: the urgency of the moment. With Harry Reid declaring that immigration reform will happen in 2009, the upcoming meeting with Obama and Members of Congress on June 17th and the unprecedented support from the labor, faith and African American communities, the momentum is certainly on our side.

summit faith

The Summit was certainly a historic moment for many who have been doing pro-immigrant work for years on end, but I want to remind folks that this is just the BEGINNING of the campaign. We have a long, uphill battle facing us, but we know that this year is different than previous years. Deepak Bhargava sums this point up nicely:

Why is this different than the push for immigration reform in previous years? Not only has this campaign been built from the bottom up — over 44 local launches of the campaign took place across the country on Monday — but it is a uniquely diverse and strong collection of folks working for a cause that a majority of the American public supports. Everyone from Rahm Emanuel to Alan Greenspan to the Police Foundation have come out in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The labor movement and the immigrant rights movement are united. Opposition to reform is increasingly the lonely province of a small but vocal and powerful group of extremists whose messages becomes more and more hateful by the day. Now is the time. This is the year.

Yes, the RI4A Summit was a rousing success, but remember, this is when the work really begins.

To view more images from the RI4A summit click here.

Categories: Summit, Washington DC

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  • http://www.campvigilance.com Ken Dreger

    Oh, please, American citizens spoke in 2007, and if your wacky groups try again to push this you again will hear from the majority of real American Citizens on the Right, Center & Left!

    American Citizens and legal immigrants do not want the 12-20 million people here made into legal citizens! Clear? Send them home, let them make their own home countries better! Let them apply for US Citizenship in their own countries! If you can pay a humman trafficker to smuggle you across the border for $5,000 you can pay to get here legally!
    Respectfully,

  • http://www.campvigilance.com ken dreger

    So meeting with Dirty Harry gives creditability?

    O M G! Dirty Hary has no creditability…please do your group some service and dump Dirty Harry!

  • http://www.bpaux.org ken dreger

    From my friend Frostey-

    Today, 15 million American citizens cannot find work. As of June 2009, 32.2 million American citizens subsist on food stamps. (That number is correct!) This nation staggers under $10.3 trillion debt.

    Our Congress supports a $700 billion annual trade deficit. That body of 535 men and women elected to represent the American electorate supports off-shoring, out-sourcing and in-sourcing of American jobs.

    Additionally, President Barack Obama, following in the footsteps of George W. Bush, supports in excess of 20 million criminal aliens working jobs, at slave wages, which displace American workers. During his term in office, he hired Janet Napolitano to head up Homeland Security. She refuses to guard America’s borders from invading criminal migrants.

    Since January 20, 2009, Obama failed to enforce immigration laws and failed to enforce America’s borders. Thus, states like California swim in a red sea of debt. Texas cannot pay its bills. Arizona suffers 57,000 cars being stolen every year by criminal aliens. MS-13 gang members thrive in 44 states. Annually, Mexico enjoys $25 Billion in cash transfers by criminal aliens sending back money from the US.

    Total costs of legal and illegal migration, according to economist Edwin Rubenstein, shows American taxpayers shelling out $346 billion annually to educate, medicate and incarcerate criminal aliens and their children within the United States.

    In an outstanding commentary, Rob Sanchez, http://www.thesocialcontract.com , Spring 2007, page 174, questioned our government’s actions: “The morality of displacing American workers.”

    “Who has the ethical right to balance the supply of labor with the demand for jobs?” Sanchez said. “The United States government? Other nations? Employers? Or immigrants looking for jobs?

    “Illegal aliens comprise about 50 percent of the annual immigration into the U.S. As they enter the labor market minorities and unskilled workers at the bottom end of the pay scale are displaced from the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black adults suffer twice the unemployment rate of whites, while black teens register 35 percent.

    For example, Black Americans suffer huge job losses at the hands of criminal aliens. Terry Anderson, LA talk show host, reported that janitors making $15.00 an hour 10 years ago suffered undercutting of wages to criminal Mexicans who worked for under $10.00 an hour.

    “Increased joblessness in the U.S. is directly attributable to the large influxes of immigrants who compete for jobs,” Sanchez said. “A study by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that immigrants are hired for a disproportionate 66 percent of U.S. jobs, yet they are only 15 percent of the adult labor force.

    “Civil strife in France serves as a warning of how mass immigration and a lack of assimilation coincides with high unemployment rates amongst teens. Riots broke out throughout France when unemployment rates approached 20 percent. France’s mistake of allowing large-scale immigration of “guest workers” for cheap labor parallels the follies of current U.S. immigration policy.

    “Rising joblessness swelled in France because the labor market couldn’t absorb the immense influx of family members and children of the immigrant laborers. Destitute immigrants were shunned into squalid neighborhoods and only perfunctory efforts were made to assimilate them.

    “It’s only a matter of time before similar social unrest occurs in the United States. Unemployment rates of 35 percent are now far higher than the 20 percent that caused widespread riots in France. Indifference to the plight of needy Americans who lack meaningful employment may lead to far worse problems than France experienced.

    “For the most part legal immigrants compete for middle class jobs. As the available labor pool expands, wages drop. It’s the law of supply and demand. Tragically, middle class Americans displaced by legal immigrants are often forced to compete with illegal immigrants in a race to the bottom of the pay scale.”

    Unemployment among American blacks rates at an all time high. Additionally, fatherless children suffer at home, in school and their futures grow dim without role models.

    “U.S. citizens cannot continue to lose jobs to immigrants at the current rates and expect to maintain their lifestyles,” Sanchez said. “During 2000-2004 the number of unemployed Americans swelled by 2.3 million while almost the same number of immigrants gained employment. The U.S. economy has not created meaningful employment opportunities for both citizens and all others.

    “Pitting American workers against immigrants for jobs is morally reprehensible. Controlling immigration is not only the moral thing to do; it is mandated by our Constitution. Our government must constitutionally ensure the financial security of its citizens and protect our borders from invasion. Regulating immigration to serve the needs of our most deserving citizens is the only ethical choice.”

    Former president Bush failed us with, “They do the jobs that Americans won’t do.” Obama continues failing us with no action against employers of criminal aliens. Our state governors refuse to lift a hand against the incredible fraud rampant at every level. Mayors in dozens of cities protect criminal aliens with ‘Sanctuary City Status” whereby their cops will not arrest nor deport criminal aliens. That status includes Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Reno, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, New York, Miami, etc. And worst of all, our Congress fails us at every level by not enforcing our immigration laws against employers.

    It’s only a matter of time before civil confrontation and riots erupt in cities across the land where 20 million criminal aliens work the jobs formerly held by Americans at living wages.