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By
Emira Palacios, National People's Action Co-Chairperson
Before
I began working in neighborhood organizing, I looked to the church
as a support system and a way to become involved in my community.
Since I am still an active member of my church, I know the power
and importance of working with the religious community on neighborhood
issues.
That is why Sunflower Community Action as part of National People’s
Action’s is joining with religious institutions to form a
coalition to build support for the Student Adjustment Act and the
DREAM Act, which are bills being introduced this year in the Senate
and the House of Representatives that would allow undocumented youth
access to higher education. In order to qualify, students have to
have attended school in the United States for five years or more
and have a good moral character. These students are taking responsibility
for their life and want to contribute to their communities.
The coalition is using the power of faith during “Faith in
Students Week” planned for late November. The coalition will
be calling on Congress to pass the bills this legislative session.
Events will feature press conferences, public actions and joint
statements from leaders of diverse faiths, broad community-based
coalitions and immigrant youth.
The fight for Immigrants’ Rights is the 21st century version
of the Civil Rights movement where we are connecting religious institutions
to grassroots movements to support the human rights and freedom
of a large part of America’s population.
A large part of organizing is not only knowing who your enemies
are, but your allies as well. Faith-based institutions can be our
strongest and most powerful ally if we continue to send them the
right message and educate them on the important role that immigrants
play in their work. Religious institutions have an obligation to
the young in their community and more and more young people making
up their congregations are immigrant youth. Educating religious
leaders on how this important legislation will benefit many college-age
youth across the country by helping them become better educated
is a key part of a successful strategy.
Timing is also very important to us now. We need to work on showing
the politicians nationwide that they can’t win without the
immigrant vote and this issue is very important to our communities.
It has been extremely hard in a post-Sept. 11 environment to fight
for immigrants' rights and I feel that in a lot of ways we are currently
forced to take small steps, which is difficult for me because I
don’t want to compromise on these issues. However, I have
faith that we are on the right course of improving the situation
for immigrants in this country. My strength and belief increase
when I think of the people at NPA who are dedicated to fighting
for justice. It renews my belief that good people working together
can accomplish a lot.
It is also important to recognize that all the issues that NPA fights
for affect immigrants. Immigrants are victims of predatory lending
and unsafe neighborhoods, but sometimes they do not feel that they
can stand up for themselves. The victories won by NPA are victories
for the immigrant community also.
Part of this group of good people, involves our religious leaders,
who we need to work with now to help educate people on immigrants'
rights. We need to remember that this country was founded by immigrants,
and immigrants have supported it throughout our history. Immigrants
make up a large part of the religious community today. And it is
time to start with the young people. The students affected by these
proposed bills are not asking for handouts. They are asking for
an opportunity to fully contribute to society.
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