NCLR JOINS NATIONAL IMMIGRATION CAMPAIGN TO PUSH FOR IMMIGRATION SOLUTIONS
Contact:
June 3, 2009 Jackeline Stewart
(202) 785-1670
Washington, DC—Calling the broken immigration system an “assault on American values and ideals,” Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today helped launch the Reform Immigration FOR America Campaign. The campaign includes business, labor, religious, civil rights, and immigrant leaders who pledge to work with President Obama and ensure that his promise of addressing comprehensive immigration reform becomes legislative reality.
“For far too long, we have allowed a can’t-do minority to block progress and manipulate this issue to tear our country apart, but the urgency for reform is clear: economically, practically, and morally,” said Murguía. “Policies that call for SWAT-like teams to pluck people out of their beds in the middle of the night, lead to racial profiling, separate families, exploit workers, and ignore due process are shamefully un-American.”
NCLR calls for a system that documents the undocumented and gets people in the system to contribute fully, brings order to the border in collaboration with our neighbors and border communities, creates sound methods that help good employers and crack down on unscrupulous ones, unclogs legal immigration channels, and advances immigrant integration strategies that strengthen America’s place in the world.
“There has never been a more urgent time to reform the immigration system. Comprehensive immigration reform is necessary to secure a better economic, practical, and moral future for our nation,” concluded Murguía.
Today’s campaign launch press conference is part of a weeklong series of events, including more than 40 local campaign launch press events in 20 states, a national summit in Washington, DC, the convening of 700 grassroots advocates representing more than 35 states, and a national town hall meeting on Capitol Hill on immigration reform.
For more information, visit www.nclr.org or www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org.
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Kety Esquivel
New Media Manager
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Direct Line: (202) 776-1708
kesquivel@nclr.org
