Nashville Joins National Immigration Reform Launch

Press coverage:

• Nashville coalition pushes immigration changes (The Tennessean)
• As Congress talks about immigration reform, states attempt to address the issue (Times Free Press)
• Faith calls us to love neighbors, pastor says (United Methodist Church)
• Observations of Monday past (Coyote Chronicles)

Local labor, faith, business, and immigrant leaders from throughout Tennessee gathered today to proclaim their support for immigration reform. As partners of the Reform Immigration FOR America Campaign, a broad-based national effort to fix the broken immigration system through a comprehensive legislative approach, these community leaders demonstrated the diverse coalition that is spearheading the movement for reform.

Avi Poster, president of the Coalition for Education about Immigration, kicked off the event, saying, "comprehensive immigration reform is long overdue, as evidenced by the increasing rancor that has defined national and local conversations about immigration and the regressive ways in which communities have responded to the problems created by our broken national immigration system." He continued, "unfortunately, the absence of reform has given rise to the adoption of local public policies that aggravate rather than solve problems.”

Throughout the conference, speakers kept returning to one central theme: “Immigration is what’s right for the economy, it’s what’s right for our families, and it’s what’s right for America,” said Remziya Suleyman, policy coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

The Vice-President of Program Service for Community Nashville, Anthony Johnson, added, “America is built on a system of values that embraces everyone. Unfortunately, the current system is an affront to those values, and needs to be reformed immediately.”

Some of the leaders are headed to Washington, D.C. this week as part of a national summit on immigration reform. Coming exactly a week before President Obama holds a top-level meeting about immigration with key Congressional members, the conference and the summit serve as clear indication that there is broad support and building momentum towards reform legislation this year.