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United We DREAM: We Will Continue Pushing for Citizenship and Relief for Immigrants

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Yesterday, United We DREAM hosted a call reiterating what just about everyone has been saying since Mitt Romney lost the presidency to Obama: the Latino vote matters, and the anti-immigrant agenda has failed.  Unless Republicans want to remain uncompetitive for generations to come, they must moderate their positions on Latino and immigrant issues.

As Lorella Praeli, Advocacy and Policy Director of United We DREAM said yesterday:

We will continue to push both Republicans and Democrats to design a permanent policy that both provides citizenship and relief to 11 million undocumented people.   We are also preparing as a network and with our partners to make sure we have a continued and effective implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). We have helped over 100,000 people apply for “deferred action” but we have 900,000 people who stand to benefit and we will continue our efforts to help all.

Continued Daniel Rodriguez, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the United We DREAM network:

Latino voters were driven to the polls this year because they supported a student’s goal to be the first one in their family to go to college, a worker’s right to be treated with respect, a family’s dream to stay united in the only country they call home.  Latino voters have a check to cash in 2013. Congress and our president have the opportunity to revive the American dream for another generation by strengthening an immigration system that currently leaves our country broken.

In late November, the United We DREAM network will meet at a conference in Kansas City, Missouri—conveniently, right in the backyard of Kris Kobach, Mitt Romney’s immigration advisor and the architect of anti-immigrant state laws like Arizona’s SB 1070.  There, they will gear up for the legislative sessions ahead and plan “to win additional victories for our families and entire communities,” according to Cristina Jimenez, Managing Director of United We DREAM.

MEANWHILE yesterday, CASA in Action, the Service Employees International Union Local 32 BJ, and other advocates yesterday rallied in front of the White House to promote family unity and ask the newly re-elected President Obama to fulfill his promise to pass immigration reform (see picture).

After the last four years and more than one million deportations, the groups are hoping that Congress and the President can come together to find a mutually acceptable comprehensive immigration reform package, in order to protect civil and human rights for immigrants and ensure that families are kept together.