Read about our campaign to recover wages for workers who have dug ditches for Verizon's communications network.  Go to www.canyoupaymenow.org.  

The Immigrant Advocacy Program pursues a wide variety of advocacy that promotes systemic reforms to address the underlying causes of the abuse and exploitation that is occurring in connection with immigrant workers. 

On the federal level, we are working hard to promote comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes the contributions of hardworking immigrants and honors our tradition as a nation of immigrants.

On the state level, we are educating our communities and elected officials regarding the importance of Virginia’s immigrants—both documented and undocumented—to Virginia’s economy.

It is important that our state and local police remain focused on fighting crime and protecting our communities, rather than chasing hardworking immigrants and dividing families.  We know that successful community policing efforts depend on a relationship of trust between local law enforcement and the immigrant communities of Virginia, and we are fighting hard to preserve that trust.  Immigrant victims and witnesses of crime should never be afraid to call the police.

 

Blinky LIght Brigade:  The Immigrant Advocacy Program recently received help from an unexpected source. A classy group of bicycle commuters and racers donated red “blinky lights” to the program with the request that the lights be distributed to day laborers who ride their bikes on the dangerous streets of Northern Virginia to get to work and for errands.  Community Outreach Specialist Edgar Aranda was able to coordinate the distribution of these lights.  We salute the solidarity among some of the hardest-core bike commuters and riders in the DC metro area, including donation coordinator and cyclist Chris Gould, the Racing Union, and Evolution Cycling. (At left is one of the workers with his new "blinky light.")

Attending one of Virginia’s excellent public colleges and universities is a dream that should be open to every promising young student in Virginia—regardless of his or her immigration status.  Proposals to ban Virginia’s undocumented high school graduates from going on to college would effectively squander taxpayer investment in the K-12 education of talented students by crushing their dreams or chasing them out of the state.

We are working hard to give law enforcement new tools to crack down on employers who exploit and abuse immigrant workers in order to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.  With limited law enforcement resources, Virginia should focus on these abusive employers—not on the multitude of Virginia employers who pay their workers fairly and treat them well. 

On the local level, we are continuing to help localities find positive community solutions that recognize the important contributions of day laborers to the local economy.  Our successful organizing work with the day laborers in Annandale has resulted in much better relationships with the community and far fewer complaints.  The workers continue to strengthen their own association, the Trabajadores Unidos de Annandale, Virginia (“TUAVA”) (United Workers of Annandale, Virginia-see photo at right), and we continue to support them in their efforts.