"It was a historic couple of days!" DC convening made significant impact on immigration debate

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Thursday, 21 February 2013 05:08

"It was a historic couple of days!" DC convening made significant impact on immigration debate

Written by UWC Staff

"A beautiful experience. Thank you!"

"A big thanks to everyone who made this possible.

It was a historic couple of days!"

The United Workers Congress is proud to report that its first DC convening of workers made a significant impact on the national debate around immigration reform. Over 300 workers and organizers, gathered to develop a shared immigration platform on workers rights and more importantly workers from different sectors from across the country brought their voices into the debate.

Specifically, events took place during February 11-13, 2013 in Washington D.C. and were sponsored by the United Worker Congress/UNITY to push for a stop to deportations and a start to immigration reform that not only includes immigrant workers and protects their rights – this is a huge task! Workers who were able to endure long bus rides and travel, were transformed by the events put together in these days and our Congress is stronger for building the relationships between people and connecting them to the current national debate.

"We have to do this more often with the goal of having stronger communities and with that new power we can be prepared to respond to any future problem our communities face."

Several historic and first time ever events took place during the United Worker Congress(UWC)/Unity Strategy Session, below are the highlights.

Political and Organizational Victories
• UWC sponsored a historic 300+ group viewing of the Winter 2013 State Of The Union address together in D.C.

• UWC had 300 people in line to pack the first Senate Hearing on Immigration Reform.

• UWC was able to assist in the first time – undocumented workers were able to make their voices heard, they stood up against Janet Napolitano for her role in the massive deportations of workers and family members.

• UWC was able to ensure that workers were able to tell their stories to members of the House and bring their experiences and real life issues to the national debate.

• UWC had a packed room of workers lined up to tell their stories At the House listening session with Gutierrez and other members the House.

• Not just immigrant workers were at the table--UWC brought workers from NY workfare to join the debate and push for the fair and humane treatment of all workers!

• UWC sponsored over 40 lobby visits with key representatives to move the POWER Act.

• Leaders for the UWC also had a meeting with the DOL today and that went well - participants felt good about building stronger relationships with them.

• The February 13th day of political and legislative actions ended with the allies meeting - and groups were excited to share what they were doing and try to find ways to connect to our work.

Social Media Success!!

• We had 538 tweets which used #all11million (the meme we put out) over the last few days and the 50 most recent ones reached 35K accounts.
http://nbclatino.com/2013/02/13/senate-hearing-on-immigration-reform-touches-on-the-human-cost-of-the-debate/

http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=%23All11million

• We have a tumblr with photos from the 2 days http://all11million.tumblr.com/

• We have a media team collecting clips and news - we had national press cover the event and will send those clips once they are compiled .

• We have video summaries of the events too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn0IQaJ6kYU&feature=youtu.be

How Far Did Folks Travel From?
Several flew in from the West Coast.

Buses came from New Orleans, Boston, New York and Chicago!
Even though the trip from the south took 2 days, the energy and excitement uplifted the passengers

Community/Artists Participation
Ramiro Gomez Jr., an artist from Los Angeles, unveiled a portrait of a family in a meeting room at the Washington Hilton on Tuesday, February 12th before the UWC audience of immigrant activists. The cutouts represented his own family, he said, as well as the families of everyone in the room. An article of his work and his experience posting his art work around D.C. is written about extensively in a Washington Post article. *The family portrait piece is now on display at the University of Maryland with the help with Dr. Perla M Guerror, Assitant Professor, Department of American Studies.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-13/entertainment/37077692_1_ramiro-gomez-deportations-immigration
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/14/171912349/artist-works-to-keep-immigrants-in-the-picture

Overall Media Coverage
AFL Begins National Push for Immigration Reform:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/07/afl-cio-begins-national-immigration-reform-push/

Voxxi: Immigrant Workers Want a Say in Reform:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/immigrant-workers-want-a-_n_2672104.html

Raw Story: Undocumented Immigrants Tell Obama Stop Tearing Apart Families
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/13/undocumented-immigrant-tells-obama-stop-tearing-families-apart-with-deportations/

Al Jazeera Interview with Rosi & Adelina
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100644686360162
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2013/02/20132149283536796.html

Undocumented Response to State of the Union
mycuentame.com/stateoftheunion

Mycuentame video from Senate hearing today:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151415500064712&set=vb.172945319711&type=2&theater

USA Today: Doubts Set Testy Tone for Senate Hearing
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/02/13/senate-immigration-hearing/1916461/

Paramus Post: Immigrant Workers Launch Platform
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20130213151428271

LA Times: Border Security Never Stronger Says Napolitano
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-napolitano-20130214,0,558836.story

Voice of America: US Senate Looks at Reform
http://www.voanews.com/content/senate-focuses-on-immigration-reform/1602926.html

ABC: Senate Address Immigration & Border
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/02/border-security-no-barrier-to-immigration-reform-napolitano-says/

AP: Calls for Action at Senate Hearing
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/12/3230460/democrats-in-immigration-gang.html