| September-October 2003 | Issue 196 |
|  |
Hispanos Unidos leads fight for immigrant rights in Kansas |
|||||||||||||||
| More than 450 community
members gathered at the MidAmerican-All-Indian Center in Wichita on
Sept. 27 to welcome two buses filled with immigrant workers from the
San Francisco Bay area on their way to Washington D.C. as part of
the national Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride campaign. Hispanos Unidos along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kansas labor unions, and several non-profit organizations planned the event to send a message to Kansans that immigrants are a powerful part of the state, and to focus public attention on immigrant rights and the injustices of current immigration policies. National People’s Action Co-Chairwoman and Hispanos Unidos leader, Emira Palacios with other Hispanos Unidos leaders Veronica Castaneda, Beatriz Ledezma and Guadelupe Magdaleno, all participated in the rally to support the buses. Hispanos Unidos is working on winning access to driver’s licenses and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants as Kansas prepares to enter the 2004 legislative session. Hispanos Unidos is currently improving the lives of the 50,000 Hispanic residents in the state who are not able to drive legally to work, school and take care of basic life needs. Many of these same families also have college-age children who want the chance to become better educated at the university level, but can’t afford out-of-state tuition prices that can be double, sometimes triple the in-state cost. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has publicly announced her support of the driver's license bills that Sunflower helped craft. Hispanos Unidos has also earned the support of New Mexico Governor Bill Richards who wrote a letter to Sebelius explaining the great benefits that passing a driver’s license bill has had in his state. Hispanos Unidos leadership has also met with the Wichita Eagle editorial board to educate them about the issues affecting the Hispanic immigrant population in Kansas. This is especially important because of the high concentration of anti-immigrant sentiments in Kansas. Hispanos Unidos is now preparing for the biggest show of organized people power in the three years they have spent working on these issues. On Jan 27, 2004 the organization is planning on bringing more than 1,000 people to the state capitol to show support for the driver's license bill during a hearing on it in the Senate. Slavery was fought on Kansas soil by John Brown before the Civil War and was historically nicknamed “Bleeding Kansas.” Now a new fight for human dignity is being fought on this soil. Those who do not support these bills say, “In this conservative state you will never win!” Hispanos Unidos is saying “Watch Us!” |
|||||||||||||||||
|
Disclosure
is published by the National Training
and Information Center. 312-243-3035 |
