Minnesota Presente!
This past Saturday, 50 freedom riders boarded a bus to join the Reform Immigration For America march in Washington DC. The majority of these advocates were immigrant families, parents, grandparents, students and people directly affected by our nation’s broken immigration system. Allies and other immigrant leaders from the Immigrant Law Center, Church World Service, UFCW, UNITE-HERE, Navigate, Browning the Green, and La Raza Student Cultural Center also joined the ride.
The night before, on Friday, MIFN leaders and allies were given over 3 hours of airtime on La Invasora 1400AM (spanish-language radio) to invite people to learn more about this action and to support in any way they could. The response was thrilling!
The phone kept ringing off the hook at the radio comment line, more than $3,000 were raised through direct donations from the people who listened to the radio, a child even brought in his own piggybank and shared his savings to help pay for the costs of sending this bus to DC. The following Saturday morning, immigrant community members and allies dropped by throughout the morning to donate water, snackbars, baked goods, atole and arroz con leche for the freedom riders.
Today, Monday, the riders are meeting with decision makers at the nation’s capitol to make sure that our families’ voices and needs do not go unnoticed and that everyone is geared to change the laws of this country to include immigrant workers and students in all aspects of American society.
How you can help
Call the following decision makers, let them know why you care about immigration reform and why this is one of your top issues in 2010:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 1-888-224-9043
Rep. Tim Walz, 1-877-846-9259
Rep. Collin Peterson, 202- 225-2165
Congressman John Kline, 202-225-2271
Stay connected to the national campaign for immigration reform by visiting:
http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/march-index/




