Thread: Conference teaches how to galvanize the reform movement

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pb ... /605140328

Immigration activists conduct training in Salem

Conference teaches how to galvanize the reform movement

THELMA GUERRERO
Statesman Journal


May 14, 2006

They came to learn how to be leaders and advocates.

More than 100 college students from throughout Oregon and Idaho are in Salem this weekend to also learn how to organize marches, launch voter-registration drives and build alliances to push for legalizing immigrants who are living illegally in the United States.

The three-day conference, being held at Chemeketa Community College, is the last in a series of five training sessions held nationwide.

It's sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Community Change, a nonprofit advocacy group, and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a coalition of nationwide community groups.

Galdina Larios, 19, a Salem resident and first-year student at CCC, said she was at the conference because she wanted to make a difference in immigrants' lives.

"We can't remain quiet anymore," she said. "If we don't speak up, who will?"

As the immigration-reform battle intensifies, the students were encouraged to put together ideas to influence federal legislation that could put the nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. on a path to citizenship.

That fight isn't just about illegal immigrants from Mexico, said Bret Noble, 23, a junior at Boise State University in Idaho.

"We're trying to break the stereotype that immigration is only a Latino issue," Noble said. "It's also about illegal immigrants from Western Europe, Asia, Africa and other nations."

For other students, the fight is about human rights.

"It's silly that an issue of this magnitude can be reduced to an issue of national origin," said Erin Leonardson, 23, a senior at Boise State.

Students also learned how to push for passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a federal measure that would allow certain illegal students from different nations to attend college and become U.S. citizens.

tguerrer@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6815

Students also learned how to push for passage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a federal measure that would allow certain illegal students from different nations to attend college and become U.S. citizens.

And to take the limited college seats which rightly belong to the children of citizens and LEGAL immigrants.

Just wrote to this college and asked them why they aren't teaching more on the American immigration laws and the pros and cons of having a mass influx into this country and why some want this done rather than teaching them how to rally around what they know NOTHING about?

RETIRED