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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202)776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Washington, D.C.—Today, NCLR (National Council of La Raza) participated in a vigil held at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. as part of a nationwide effort to show solidarity with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice’s (ACIJ) One Family, One Alabama campaign to repeal the state’s anti-immigrant bill, HB 56. The campaign, which launched today in Birmingham, Ala., includes a host of Black and Latino members of Congress and civil rights leaders from Alabama and from around the country.
“In just a few short weeks, HB 56 has wreaked untold damage on Alabama’s economy and educational system and endangered the public safety and civil rights of hundreds of thousands of residents,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR. “To push back on this reprehensible law, we need a unified front of everyone from local activists in Alabama to our national leaders to lend their voice and support to urge the Alabama legislature to reject a law that harkens back to a very dark chapter in the state’s history.”
The One Family, One Alabama campaign kicked off its repeal efforts today by welcoming a congressional delegation from the House of Representatives that will host field briefings in Birmingham to hear about the impact that HB 56 has had on families, businesses, agriculture, and law enforcement. Democratic State Senator Billy Beasley, sponsor of the proposed bill to repeal HB 56, spoke at the campaign launch, along with a number Alabama residents whose lives have been damaged by the law.
“Having this delegation of representatives here in Birmingham is crucial to helping elevate this movement to repeal HB 56 beyond the borders of Alabama,” said Isabel Rubio, Executive Director of ¡HICA! (Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama), an NCLR Affiliate, ACIJ member, and lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the law. “If you’re not already tuned in to what’s going on here, it really is difficult to get across how severely devastating this law has been on Alabama’s families. We need to come together as a nation and say ‘enough’ to these bills that demonize and discriminate against our community and damage our whole state. ”
“We deeply appreciate the role that Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and the Department of Justice have played in taking on this counterproductive and likely unconstitutional law,” said Murguía. “Hopefully their strong stand as well as this new campaign will encourage other key policy leaders to join the effort to repeal this law and work instead on real solutions like comprehensive immigration reform.”
If you would like more information or would like to support the campaign, please visit www.acij.net.
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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