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News release

MomsRising Joins Women Leaders to Fight Unjust Anti-Immigrant Laws

September 27, 2011
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Organization’s Vice President Joins Delegation Traveling to Georgia in Opposition to HB 87
Recognizing that anti-immigration laws passed in Arizona and Georgia are unjust and tearing apart families, MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground grassroots organization for moms and everyone who has a mom, has joined forces with more than two dozen other organizations to highlight the lasting damage these laws do to families and communities.
 
MomsRising Vice President Mary Olivella is among a delegation of women’s leaders from those organizations traveling to Atlanta this week to meet with immigrant women affected by Georgia’s new anti-immigrant bill, HB 87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011.  They will hear the stories of immigrant women on the evening of September 28 and hold a news conference opposing human rights abuses happening in the name of immigration law enforcement on September 29.
 
The women leaders are part of the We Belong Together Delegation, and represent organizations including the National Domestic Workers Alliance, AFL-CIO, Center for Reproductive Rights, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Feminist Majority and others.
 
“Our nation has always included mothers and fathers who come to our shores seeking better lives for their families,” said Olivella. “But right now far too many immigrant families are having their human and civil rights violated in the name of immigration law enforcement.”
 
HB 87, which is currently enjoined by a federal judge, would allow local police to check immigration status of anyone suspected of violating any law and allow for the prosecution of anyone who transports or harbors an undocumented worker.  The law will also hurt businesses by increasing workplace raids and mandating that all businesses use a federal electronic verification system (E-Verify) to check that every worker is legally authorized to work in the U.S.
 
“This law will dramatically increase racial profiling and create a culture of fear in Georgia,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.  “It will increase deportation of moms and dads, potentially separating them from one another and from their children – tearing families apart. And it will dissuade women from reporting cases of domestic or sexual violence for fear of detention or deportation.  This type of law helps no one and it hurts many.”
 
MomsRising is hosting a blog-a-thon on the law, featuring posts from the women leaders in the We Belong Together Delegation, at www.momsrising.org.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.