Campaign for Community Change

Word on the Pledge to Acknowledge and Respect the Dignity of Immigrants is spreading. Click here for an announcement about it on the Blue Latinos blog.

The Pledge to Acknowledge and Respect the Human Dignity of Immigrants is spreading. Please, click here to sign the pledge today.

I wanted to take a moment to thank our partner, BlueLatinos.org, for helping to spread the word.

On Tuesday, October 31, Hannah Butler's letter to the editor ran in the Arizona Daily Star. Hannah is a volunteer and canvasser with the Neighbors Working for Immigrant Dignity Campaign. The text of her letter follows:

The Campaign for Community Change in the news commenting on Proposition 100.

"(It would) create additional expense when such a program isn't necessary," he said.

In an irony befitting Arizona's brand of immigration politics, those that would be denied access to English classes as adults by Proposition 300 would be able to get English instruction in jail.

On Thursday, October 26, the Campaign for Community Change endorsed a statement (see below) calling on candidates of all parties to raise the bar of civility in the immigration debate. The vicious, and in some cases, racist rhetoric is undermining the Latino community and creating divisions among all of our communities. We stand with the other organizations that have signed this letter and hope for a rational discussion on the real issues facing all of Arizona's communities and a sensible dialog on immigration.

Recent polls confirm the challenge we face opposing Propositions 100, 102, 103 and 300. Of the four, Proposition 300 has the most opposition, but at the moment, it appears to be up by seven percentage points among voters. The difference between this poll and Election Day will be made by the number of people that actually vote in the general election on November 7. That's why voting is so important. Click here to view the article in the Arizona Daily Star on the polls.

This week, the Campaign for Community Change succeeded in reaching out to more than 15,000 voters across Southern Arizona by phone and by going door to door. Our tremendous canvassers and phone bankers through their commitment to this issue made this possible. And we've received outstanding support from a number of local organizations. In coming days we'll announce a number of events that we hope will draw dozens of volunteers to help get out the word against these four dangerous propositions: 100, 102, 103 and 104. We're well on our way to reaching our GOTV goal of more than 25,000 registered voters.

Arizona has some of the nation's worst examples of immigrant scapegoating and anti-immigrant violence. This is the environment in which propositions like 100, 102, 103 and 300 take seed. On November 7, Arizona voters will be making a decision about whether they will acknowledge the dignity of immigrants or stand with the anti-immigrant vigilantes that have made Arizona their battle ground. One of the worst examples of anti-immigrant vigilanteism is Roy Warden. He is profiled in the Souther Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, which tracks the activities of hate organizations across the United States. Click here for the article.

The toxic and polarized nature of the immigration debate is being driven by important misperceptions about the Latino community in Arizona. Proposition 103 would make English the official language in Arizona, despite the fact that all state business is already conducted in English, and translation services are made available to those who need it. But many Arizonans believe that there are far more non-English speakers in Arizona than there actually are.