tags: , Blog

Netroots Nation 2010: Immigration Panels You Won’t Want to Miss

Share This:

Heading to Vegas? Below is a fairly exhaustive list of immigration-related panels at Netroots Nation 2010 (#NN10 on twitter), compiled by the folks at Detention Watch Network.

From the America’s Voice team, Adam Luna will be speaking Thursday at 3pm on a panel with former Police Chief Arturo Venegas and Arizona State Rep Kyrsten Sinema entitled, “Immigration Reform’s Strange Bedfellows: The Surprising Consensus that Reform will Improve American Jobs and Bolster Our Economy,” and yours truly will be on a panel Saturday at 4pm with Markos, founder and publisher of Daily Kos, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who’s been fighting for immigration reform in what’s become ground zero of the nation’s immigration debate. It’s called, How Immigration Reform Sustains a Progressive Majority.

Here’s the description of the two panels, which you won’t want to miss:

Immigration Reform’s Strange Bedfellows: The Surprising Consensus that Reform will Improve American Jobs and Bolster Our Economy

Thursday, July 22nd 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM

Panel, Brasilia 6

Panelists will discuss how meaningful immigration reform will be beneficial to our economy and society, due to overwhelming evidence that the current policy of enforcement-only action does not work and costs our country billions of dollars. This cycle creates a system of virtual slavery for many undocumented workers in the U.S. and drives down wages and benefits for all workers, immigrant and native-born, in many industries. Panelists will discuss various aspects of reform and how enforcement-only tactics are ineffective and hurt our economy, as well as ways in which the netroots can build coalitions around the issue.

State Rep Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)

Kyrsten Sinema serves as the Assistant Leader to the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and represents central Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature District 15. Now in her third term, she is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and also serves on the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.

Kyrsten holds both a law degree and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at ASU. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU and practices law when not in session. […]

Kyrsten is a strong voice for the community at the national level, appearing on CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, and she speaks regularly at national conferences on a variety of issues including health care, immigration, equal rights, ballot initiatives, messaging strategy, coalition building.

Kyrsten’s first book, Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions that Win and Last, was released in July 2009 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

How Immigration Reform Sustains a Progressive Majority

Saturday, July 24th 4:00 PM – 5:45 PM

Panel, Brasilia 4

Reacting to draconian immigration laws proposed in 2006, Latinos and immigrants increased their political power by organizing, marching, becoming citizens in record numbers and voting for progressive candidates who promised to reform our broken immigration laws. Latino voters were credited with flipping four states for Obama in 2008. With this in mind, how do we sustain a progressive majority in 2010 and beyond? This session will examine the opportunities, demographics and political power of the Latino and immigrant vote and what is needed to sustain a progressive majority.

Markos Moulitsas

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States. Named “the single most successful entrepreneur of the progressive movement” by NY Times magazine writer and author Matt Bai, Moulitsas is also co-author of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, author of Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, a contributing columnist to Newsweek Magazine and a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbe’s Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World’s list of the “Most Important People on the Web.”

FULL SCHEDULE OF IMMIGRATION-RELATED PANELS AT NN10 (below the jump):