LOW-INCOME IMMIGRANT RIGHTS CONFERENCE

BRIDGING COMMUNITIES Renewed Strength and Promise

Immigration

Employment Issues

Public Benefits

Driver's Licenses

DREAM Act

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6TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE
December 6-8, 2007, Arlington, Virginia

All workshop and plenary session presentation materials submitted for posting as of December 20, 2007, are now posted. 

To see the conference program, click here.

Keynote Address
  (Thursday, December 6, 12:30 - 2 p.m.)

Rev. Nelson N. Johnson
Rev. Johnson is executive director of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.  The Center’s mission is to foster and model a spirit of community based on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Beloved Community.”  In this spirit, the Center envisions and works toward social and economic relations that affirm and realize the equality, dignity, worth, and potential of every person.

  • “Bridging Communities: Renewed Strength and Promise” (transcript and video of Rev. Nelson’s profoundly inspiring speech)

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Plenary Sessions
 (Speaker Profiles.)

  • From Heat to Light: Building Unity between African Americans and Immigrants through Social Justice
    (Friday, December 7, 8:30 - 10:15 a.m.)

  • Immigration in the 2008 Elections  
    (Saturday, December 8, 11:15 a.m.  - 12:45 p.m.)

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Training & Workshop Descriptions

TRAININGS  (Trainer Profiles)

Thursday, December 6, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

1.1 Eligibility for Public Benefits 101
 An introductory session providing a framework and other tools for assessing whether a particular immigrant may be eligible for public benefits, with an emphasis on the rules governing the major federal benefits programs.  Participants will learn the categories and other terminology relevant to determining immigrant eligibility for benefits and will have an opportunity to practice making eligibility determinations through scenarios and other exercises.  (Jonathan Blazer, Barbara Weiner)

1.2 Immigrant Workers’ Rights 101
Provides an overview of immigrant workers’ rights.  Reviews relevant federal laws, legal developments on immigrant workers’ access to legal remedies after the Hoffman Plastic Compounds decision, SSA “no-match” rule, and recent expansions of employment verification systems.  (Monica Guizar, Marielena Hincapié)

1.3 Immigration Law 101: Overview of Family-based Immigration, Citizenship and Removal
Provides an introduction to basic immigration concepts and procedures for obtaining immigration status such as family-based visas, employment-based visas, VAWA, etc.  Also reviews the basics of detention and removal proceedings.  (Peggy Gleason, Sushil Narayanan)

  • Please see pp. 2.8 - 2.16 of the conference Resource Manual.

Thursday, December 6, 2:15 - 3:45 p.m.

2.1 Barriers to Public Benefits 101
 Provides an overview of the barriers eligible immigrants and/or their family members face in accessing the major federal public benefits programs and strategies for overcoming barriers.  Covers topics such as confidentiality and verification, public charge, sponsor liability, and language access.  Also reviews pending federal proposals affecting barriers to benefits access.  (Deeana Jang, Dinah Wiley)

2.3 Immigration Law 102: Advanced Topics
Covers the remedies available to people in removal proceedings, discusses grounds of inadmissibility and waivers, and describes basic approaches to addressing the problems that arise when immigrants have been accused or convicted of crimes.  (Peggy Gleason, Sushil Narayanan)

  • Please see pp. 2.17 - 2.25 of the conference Resource Manual.

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WORKSHOPS  (Presenter Profiles)

Thursday, December 6, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

1.4 Electronic Employment Verification Systems: No Magic Bullet
Increasingly, national and state legislators view electronic employment verification systems (EEVS) as the solution to undocumented immigration.  This workshop describes federal, state, and local proposals that expand EEVS and discusses strategies to combat these anti-immigrant and anti-worker proposals.  (Tim Freilich, Matt Ginsburg, Tyler Moran, Timothy D. Sparapani)

1.5 Taking the Offensive in Support of Immigrant Rights
A space to share strategies for creating welcoming communities for immigrants.  Speakers will focus on how local and state entities can work proactively with immigrant communities, and on how to educate the general public about immigrants’ human rights, struggles, and contributions so as to mobilize support for immigrant rights.  (Elias Garcia, Mireya Hurtado, David Lubell, Danielle Short, Nicola Wells)

1.6 Driver’s Licenses and IDs: Profound Problems for Immigrant Families
Discusses state and local debates on driver’s licenses and IDs, and how the lack of ID documents creates barriers for families. Explores strategies for overcoming such obstacles.  (Joan Friedland, Jack Holtzman, Kica Matos, Amy Sugimori)
 

Thursday, December 6, 2:15 - 3:45 p.m.

2.2 Organizing & Representing Immigrant Workers: Rights & Remedies
Provides critical information about issues that arise when organizing and representing immigrant workers.  A training on the rights and remedies available to workers under state and federal labor and employment laws, and on strategies for protecting workers during the course of organizing or litigation.  (Steve Choi, Mayra Peters-Quintero, Karen Tumlin)

2.4 Preserving Access to Emergency Medicaid
Medicaid coverage for medical emergencies is one of the few benefits available to immigrants regardless of status.  Here we explore recent developments in immigrant access to emergency Medicaid at the state and federal levels and offer an opportunity to share strategies for preserving and improving access.   (Sonal Ambegaokar, Jane Perkins)

2.5 Best Practices/Lessons Learned from Raids
Brings together advocates and service providers who have responded to recent immigration raids at workplaces, homes, and street corners.  Focuses on lessons learned and successful strategies for how to best prepare for raids as our communities face increasingly aggressive enforcement tactics.  (Marcony Almeida, Carly Burton, Gloria Contreras Edin)

2.6 From “Family Unity” to “Chain Migration”: It’s Not Just Semantics
Explores the evolution of attitudes about family-based immigration and strategies for combating negative mischaracterizations of family reunification policies.  We will address the politics of semantics and public opinion as we strategize ways to reframe the discussion and bolster the family-based immigration system.  (Angela Kelley, Grisella Martinez, Ali Noorani, George C. Wu)

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Thursday, December 6, 4:15 - 5:45 p.m.

3.1 Overview of Employment-related Immigration Enforcement Tools
Provides an in-depth overview of employer/worksite-based immigration enforcement tools:  the I-9 employment eligibility verification process and I-9 audits; the Basic Pilot and ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employer (IMAGE) programs; and Social Security “no-match” letters.  (Monica Guizar, Rigoberto Valdez)

3.2 Fighting State and Local Restrictions on Services for Immigrants
Focuses on state and local proposals to restrict immigrants’ access to services.   Participants will share strategies for defeating proposals and minimizing and documenting harms caused by enacted measures.  They also will share ideas for affirmative measures that states and localities might consider instead.  (Hope Bastian, David Blatt, Jonathan Blazer, Tanya Broder, Gabriela Flora, Larry Frankel)

3.3 Working Together to Bridge Immigrant Communities
Today in the U.S., immigrants are found along the full spectrum of every socioeconomic indicator -- from wealth to poverty, advanced education to illiteracy, entrepreneurial success to marginal survival.  Immigrant communities struggle with differences among the groups in terms of language, culture, and history; and they continue to be overlooked by government officials, to be viewed as a low priority for services and resources because of these variations.  This dialogue session will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a pan-immigrant perspective when advocating for improved policies, funding, and services for the broader immigrant community.  Presenters will also explore the successes, challenges, and existing power dynamics advocates have faced in convening pan-immigrant organizations to advocate for the expansion of the existing service infrastructure to effectively address the critical unmet needs of immigrant children and families.  (Ruchika Bajaj, Abdulaziz Kamus, EunSook Lee, Sara Sadhwani)

3.4 Increased Criminalization, Decreased Rights: Part I
Explores the recent attempts to further criminalize immigrant communities and limit immigrants’ due process rights, including how the criminal justice system is increasingly being used to identify and deport immigrants and the use of racial and ethnic profiling in these efforts.   (Joan Friedland, J. Traci Hong, Benita Jain, Eva A. Millona)

3.5 Advocating for Language Access
Discusses advocacy for meaningful access to health care and other services by people with limited English proficiency.  Offers blueprints for state campaigns that have improved standards for hospitals, Medicaid offices, and the quality of health-care interpreting.  Emphasizes strategies for engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, and models for obtaining federal reimbursement.  (Jennifer Deng-Pickett, Adam Gurvitch, Deeana Jang, Mara Youdelman)

3.6 Legal Remedies and Access to Benefits for Immigrant Survivors of Violence and Other Crimes
Outlines the main legal remedies that immigrant survivors of violence, as well as victims of certain crimes who may be eligible for the U visa, may utilize to adjust their status, and details the public benefits available to survivors at various points in the legalization process.  (Krista DelGallo, Grisella Martinez, Kavitha Sreeharsha)

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Friday, December 7, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

4.1 Preventing the Dismantling of Social Security
Recent proposals, including one likely to considered by Congress in December,  seek to deny Social Security benefits to lawfully present immigrants and naturalized citizens by confiscating past contributions to the system made during prior periods of undocumented status.  Panelists will describe the details of the proposals and offer perspective on the politics fueling Congress members’ positioning in the debate.  Participants will strategize together on how to defend the Social Security system’s protection of all workers.  (Jonathan Blazer, Grisella Martinez, Cecilia Muñoz)

4.2 Addressing Immigrant Issues within a Children’s Health Campaign
Examines strategies, including message development, for ensuring that campaigns to expand children’s access to health insurance are inclusive and that they address immigrant-specific concerns.  Share experiences in building coalitions, as well as success stories, lessons learned, and model policies.  (Joan C. Alker, Sonal Ambegaokar, Liz Arjun, Kathy Chan, Sarah Cherin)

4.3 Industry-specific Strategies in the Greater Struggle for Workers’ Rights
Provides case studies of immigrant workers’ struggles in some of the most vulnerable low-wage immigrant industries, including farm workers, meat/poultry workers, and sweatshops.  (Rini Chakraborty, Luckner Millien, Mike Muñoz, Darcy Tromanhauser)

4.4 Countering the Rise of Nativist Influence
Some anti-immigrant groups enjoy mainstream status and respect.  Therefore, immigration advocates are designing new communication strategies to change how nativist groups are perceived.  Participants will discuss these strategies and share experiences to strengthen the immigrant rights movement.  (Marisa Aguayo, Devin Burghart, Patrick M. Garland, Roberto Lovato, Corey Saylor)

4.5 Fortress America
Explores the increased militarization of the border and its impact on interior enforcement generally.  Topics include:  the evolution of U.S. border policy, the relationship between border policy and interior enforcement, and strategies for resisting additional enforcement legislation.  (Josh Bernstein, Elizabeth Camargo, Shiu Ming Cheer, Pedro Rios)

4.6 What’s Law Got to Do With It?  How Organizers & Lawyers Collaborate to Advance Social Justice
Brings together grassroots organizers, advocates and lawyers to explore models and strategies on how organizers and lawyers can collaborate to advance social justice. The workshop will explore the particular challenges that arise between lawyers and organizers, helping lawyers understand their role in advancing social change, and how organizers can engage lawyers in organizing campaigns.  (D. Michael Dale, Lilia García, Saket Soni, Chris Williams)

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Friday, December 7, 2:15 - 3:45 p.m.

5.1 Framing the Debate on Immigrants and Benefits
Participants will share communication strategies to help improve immigrants’ access to health care and other public benefits, and to navigate hostile climates at the federal and state levels.  Discussion of affirmative and defensive messages, using data to debunk myths, and identifying and cultivating helpful messengers.  (Isabel Alegria, Sonal Ambegaokar, Shawn Fremstad, Alan Jenkins)

5.2 Access to Child Care and Early Education for Immigrant Families
Examines strategies for removing barriers to child care, such as Social Security number or other documentation requirements, language access issues, and the lack of culturally appropriate care.  Participants will share information about how to improve access to high-quality early care and education programs.  (Tanya Broder, Keila Garcia, Dan Lesser, Hannah Matthews)

5.3 Increased Criminalization, Decreased Rights: Part II
Focuses on messaging strategies to counter two linked trends:  increased criminalization of immigrants and decreased due process rights.  Presenters will share recent research on messaging around immigration due process, detention, and deportation issues that resonates with the public.  (Lucas Guttentag, Kate Stewart, Kerri Sherlock Talbot, Emma White)

5.4 Worker Centers: Organizing and Representing Day Laborers
Highlights strategies that worker centers use in representing and organizing immigrant workers, including strategies for seeking payment of wages, collaboration with labor unions, and creating worker co-ops.  (Eddie Acosta, Megan McLeod, Joann Lo, Chris Newman)

5.5 Responding to the Use of Social Security “No-Match” Letters
Provides an overview of the Dept. of Homeland Security’s new rule for employers who receive “no-match” letters and highlights successful strategies for protecting workers who receive these letters both in union and nonunion settings.  (Brooke Anderson, Tim Bell, Monica Guizar)

5.6 Building Bridges Between Immigrant and Citizen Communities of Color
 Brings together grassroots leaders whose work incorporates a multiracial perspective in order to promote sustainable solutions meeting the needs of everyone affected.  How do we develop strategies for creating an inclusive democracy in which multiracial unity and power-building is key?  Provides examples of issues local communities are focusing on, and examines why multiracial perspectives are so challenging to achieve yet so critically important.  (Kéren E. Charles Dongo, Aarti Kohli, Marie Thompson, M. Aurora Vásquez)

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Friday, December 7, 4:15 - 5:45 p.m.

6.1 Securing SSI for Humanitarian Immigrants and Other Noncitizens
A discussion of litigation and policy advocacy at the federal and state levels aimed at ensuring that refugees and other humanitarian immigrant seniors and persons with disabilities have access to subsistence benefits.  How might these efforts fit into a broader campaign to restore SSI eligibility to immigrant seniors and immigrants with disabilities?  (Candice Knezevic, Helly Lee, Dan Lesser, Jonathan Stein)

6.2 Comprehensive Immigration Reform: What’s Next?
A dialogue to discuss lessons learned from recent comprehensive immigration reform–related advocacy and legislative developments, where we go from here, and what strategies we can use in realizing truly just immigration reform.  (Linton Joaquin, EunSook Lee, Esther Olavarria)

6.3 Challenging Efforts to Turn Local Police into Immigration Agents
Explores enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local agencies, as well as attempts by state and local lawmakers to criminalize immigrants and those who associate with them.  (Tim Freilich, Joan Friedland, Jacinta Gonzalez G., Rachel LaZar)

6.4 Locked Away
Explores strategies for challenging and improving immigration detention conditions, including detainees’ access to counsel, telephones, legal materials, and basic health care.  Considers how to capitalize on recent reports of abuses in immigrant detention to counter the push for increased detention.  (Andrea Black, Alix Nguefack, Sunita Patel, Karen Tumlin)

6.5 Worksite Raids: Advocacy Strategies for Protecting Workers
Provides an overview of issues, arising in immigration raids, that are unique to worksites.  Discusses advocacy and legal strategies for protecting immigrant workers.  Topics include harboring, ICE intervention in labor disputes, and increased criminal prosecution of detainees.  (Ana L. Avendaño, Dan Kesselbrenner, Esther R. López)

6.6 Gender, Identity, and Sexual Orientation: Distinctive Challenges for Immigrant Populations
Discusses gender, identity, and sexual orientation-related issues specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants.  The discussion will include information about the current state of LGBT immigrants, reconciling gaps in cultural competency between immigration and LGBT service providers, and resources for service providers and advocates.  (Francisco Dueñas, Adam Francoeur, Grisella Martinez)

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Saturday, December 8, 9:30 - 11 a.m.

7.1 Litigation and Policy Strategies Challenging State and Local Anti-Immigrant Measures
Reviews current and pending litigation against local anti-immigrant measures, and discusses policy strategies preventing these types of measures from being approved.  (Rebecca Bernhardt, Kristina M. Campbell, Camila Chávez, Omar Jadwat, Karen Tumlin)  

7.2 Train-the-Trainer: Social Security “No-Match” Letters
Provides community and labor leaders practical tools for training other leaders in their respective communities on how to effectively respond to SSA “no-match” letters.  We will be using a new standard curriculum on Social Security “no-match” letters developed with the help of advocates from across the country.  (Tim Bell, Monica Guizar, Mark Meinster, Mike Muñoz, Christine Neumann-Ortiz)  

7.3 Forging a New Policy Agenda on Immigrants and Benefits: Strategy Session
A collective strategy session.  After a brief summary of the trend of accomplishments and setbacks at the federal, state and local levels, participants will work toward mapping a new agenda on immigrant benefit policies for the coming years.  (Sonal Ambegaokar, Dinah Wiley)  

7.4 Organizing and Advocacy Efforts for Guest Workers
Addresses the push and pull factors that bring guest workers to the U.S. and provides an update on the abhorrent living and working conditions to which many are currently subjected.  Discusses litigation and other strategies and tactics that advocates can use against labor contractors and government agencies.  (Mary Bauer, Gabriel Camacho, Daniel Castellanos)

7.5 Keeping the DREAM Alive: Next Steps
Brings together current and future DREAM Act advocates and organizers to better coordinate local and national efforts.  We will discuss what strategic adjustments are needed to ensure success.  (Rosa M. García, Melissa Lazarín, Sookyung Oh, Raymond Rico)  

7.6 Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery
 Trafficked individuals often are victims of egregious labor violations that are effectively modern day forms of slavery.  Discusses how to assist trafficked individuals in securing T and U visas and obtaining the benefits for which they are eligible.  Also discusses civil litigation strategies to use against traffickers.  (Anna Y. Park, Saket Soni, Sabulal Vijayan, Dan Werner)  

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To see the conference program, click here.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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