Panel to discuss immigration reform legislation

Beatriz Maya, director of La Conexion de Wood County, addresses the crowd during a 2017 rally.

From LA CONEXION IMMIGRANT SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

Since January, several immigration reform bills have been introduced in Congress.

The most comprehensive bill was introduced by Senator Menendez; this bill is meant to open channels for documentation and residency rights for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country, Dreamers, and TPS holders.

Senator Padilla introduced a bill to benefit undocumented essential workers. Later, other bills passed the House benefiting Dreamers and farm workers. These have yet to be considered by the Senate. The immigrant community is hopeful, but there will be challenges and hard work ahead of us.

The NW Ohio Immigrant Rights Network is hosting a virtual educational event, open to the community, to make the case for immigration reform. What would be the benefits of immigration reform for the State of Ohio and specifically our NW region? Why do we need immigration reform? Who would be impacted?

These main questions will be answered by an impressive panel of speakers:

Eddie Taveras, New York State Immigration Director for FWD.us, a national organization instrumental in the development of some of the recently introduced immigration bills;

Dayton Chief of Police Richard Biehl, a member of the Welcome Dayton initiative and the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, and a pioneer in developing welcoming policies and practices for law enforcement when interacting with limited English proficiency individuals;

Karla Mendoza, a Dreamer and local immigration advocate, who will provide the human story and the local impact.

Event Details:

Title: “Immigration Reform: A Vital Piece of Ohio’s Future”

Date: April 22 at 6 p.m.

Where: Virtual Event – Hosted on Zoom in partnership with BGSU’s Latin American and Latino/a/x Studies Cluster

Attendance Information: Register at http://bit.ly/OhioImmigration