To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride and to help make immigrants’ voices heard before the elections, the New American Opportunity Campaign will kick off a National Week of Action September 20-26, 2004 with local events across our nation and a lobby day in Washington, DC. The New American Opportunity Campaign is a broad-based coalition of immigrant communities and organizations, which includes Asian Pacific American (APA) groups such as the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) and the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC).

These groups are helping local chapters and APA communities around the country get involved with the Nationwide September Week of Action. As part of a community that is over 60% foreign born, Asian Pacific Americans know full well the benefits that new Americans bring to this country, and the need for humane immigration laws and policies.

Download the D.C. Lobby Day Registration Form today. (PDF Document size: 75 KB; also available online at http://www.newamericanopportunitycampaign.org)

For more information, you may contact Michele Waslin at the National Council of La Raza at 202-776-1735 or
e-mail lobbyday@nclr.org

Get the Immigration Advocacy and Media Toolkit
A Handbook for Legislative Advocacy and Media Communications.
MORE ABOUT THE NAOC The New American Opportunity Campaign is a newly-formed coalition headed by leading local and national pro-immigrant and labor groups. NAPALC, OCA, and NAKASEC are all on the NAOC’s Coordinating Committee and are helping ensure Asian Pacific American voices and perspectives to the NAOC’s work.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
The goal of the Week of Action is to create pressure for elected officials to support and pass immigration reform; elevate the range of issues advocates care about while building grassroots capacity; and promote civic participation among immigrant communities.

This will be accomplished by organizing local and national events pushing for the passage of AgJOBs and DREAM while sending the message that any CLEAR or CLEAR-like legislation should be defeated. We also intend to build long-term support for SOLVE and CLRA.

For more information about immigration legislation, visit http://www.napalc.org, http://www.immigrationforum.org, or http://www.nclr.org

Many activities in dozens of cities are being contemplated. We know that advocates are working on the multitude of issues–from family immigration backlog to DREAM and everything in between—and that many events are already planned in communities across the country for the month of September. We urge you to participate in the National Week of Action so that your efforts are amplified through our combined efforts and coordination.

While not an exhaustive list, below are some ideas being discussed:

Public forums in cities such as
Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Sacramento, San Diego, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, Metro DC/VA/MD, Miami, and Houston. Link up with these efforts or organize one with your organization or IWFR Coalition. · If you are currently doing a voter registration in immigrant communities, deliver the names to public officials to demonstrate the voting power of new Americans. ·

Hold meetings with Congressional district offices to seek support for SOLVE, AgJOBS, DREAM and CLRA.

Send a state delegate or delegation to DC for a National Lobby Day on September 21, 2004. GET INVOLVED In order to facilitate greater coordination and to maximize our individual efforts, there are specific subcommittees with leaders that will be your point of contact for your organization’s efforts. It is very important for you to PLEASE email the contact person so that you can benefit from the work of the committee. Many of you may not yet know what your organization will be doing, or many of you may want to be part of all three committees. We urge to err on the side of emailing all three committees and then later you can decide whether you want to participate!

The Local Events Committee
This Committee will be providing information shortly on the cities and leaders that are organizing local events the week of (and weeks before and after) September 20th. This Committee will soon be announcing a conference call to where ideas can be discussed about events, and folks that in the same area can team up and join forces.

Please get in contact with either Kate Shaughnessy at the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR) at 612-384-9609 OR
Reva Gupta (CCIR) at 202-530-4699 so that we can reach out to you and include you in future calls.
You can e-mail either Kate or Reva at localevents@nuevavistagroup.com

The D.C. Lobby Day Committee on September 21st
For those folks who want to send a person or people to DC during the week of action, we have designated Tuesday, September 21st as the DC Lobby Day for the National Week of Action. This Committee will be coordinating the work around the lobby day visits including providing materials, trainings and team leaders for the day.

The point of contact is Michele Waslin at the National Council of La Raza at 202-776-1735 or
e-mail lobbyday@nclr.org

The "Media Committee"
The goal of this committee is to be sure that we project the strongest and most united front possible to the English and non-English press. The Committee will be sending basic talking points out about the Week of Actions, provide "message boxes" on the range of legislative issues, help support your local press events during the week of action and coordinate a national press event on Tuesday, September 21st (presuming we have enough folks coming to DC.)

The point of contact for this committee is Douglas Rivlin at rivlin@immigrationforum.org or Vanesa Cardenas at:
vcardenas@immigrationforum.org
They can both be reached at 202-347-0040

If you have any questions about Asian Pacific Americans and either the New American Opportunity Campaign, the National Week of Action, or immigration in general, please contact the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) at 202-296-2300. NAPALC contacts are:
Traci Hong at thong@napalc.orgg or
Ben de Guzman bdeguzman@napalc.org