Gamaliel’s Civil Rights of Immigrants Campaign and Gamaliel of California held a Congressional Briefing May 12 to advocate for Complete Inclusive Immigration Reform (CIIR).
CIIR is a set of demands that the Civil Rights of Immigrants Campaign put forward in a January, 2021 letter to President Joe Biden, including a moratorium on deportations, creating a pathway to citizenship, and providing protective status to all undocumented essential workers. Read the full list of demands and the letter to President Biden on our Civil Rights of Immigrants homepage.
During the Congressional Briefing, Dr. Raul Hinojosa, founder and director of UCLA’s North American Integration and Development Center, presented his recent research on the economic benefits of immigration reform. Several impacted persons also gave testimony, and participating members of Congress had a chance to respond and voice their support.
The following members of Congress were present or sent a video in support of the Briefing: Congressman Lou Correa (D-CA46); Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC12); Congresswoman Nannette Barragan (D-CA44), Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Congressman Juan Vargas (D-CA51); Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA40); and Congressman Chuy Garcia (D–IL 4th District). Five of these are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
CRI was also joined by the legendary Latina leader, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
This was the third event within a month held by the Civil Rights of Immigrants Campaign with support from Gamaliel of California. On May 10, the groups celebrated undocumented mothers and demanded a path to citizenship for them. On April 29, they marked Children’s Day with a petition to reunite Unaccompanied Migrant Children with their families and work with their home countries to address the root causes for child migration. You can watch recordings of these events here and here.
Watch the live stream of the Congressional Briefing here.