Hundreds Take Action for Reform to Broken Immigration Laws

Community Demands Action from Congress on Long-Awaited Fix to Broken System

Hundreds of workers and community allies came together Sunday for a door-to-door mobilization event to broaden support for reform to our unjust immigration laws. Participants canvassed the surrounding neighborhood to gather support for reform and push Congress to take action.

“We are here today to talk to our neighbors about the need to fix our broken immigration system,” said Javier Morillo, President of SEIU Local 26. “We are gathering community support to ask Congress to take action on much-debated, long awaited reform to our unjust immigration laws.”

The event began at 3:00pm at the corner of 38th St. and Pleasant Ave. in south Minneapolis, and ended at the Lyndale Park Rose Garden. Before the canvass, supporters heard from the children of immigrants who have experienced first-hand the effect of our broken immigration system.

“My mother was deported a year and a half ago due to a technicality, and our family was torn apart,” said Jennifer Avendaño. “My sisters and I – we are American citizens, and our lives are here, but we didn’t go to school, we couldn’t talk to our friends, we didn’t even eat for awhile.”

“We can no longer afford an enforcement-only immigration policy. The result will be thousands of immigrant workers losing their jobs, thousands of parents of citizen children without work during a recession, and hundreds more homes in foreclosure,” said Veronica Mendez, an organizer with the Worker Center for Justice, a part of a coalition that includes Workers Interfaith Network, ISAIAH, SEIU, and MIRAC.

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