Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Winter 2008
The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) is a national consortium of three Korean American community-based organizations in Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, with national staff in Los Angeles. All have been extremely active and visible in educating and mobilizing large numbers of Korean Americans to advocate for fair and comprehensive immigration reforms at the federal and local levels, and to become more civically engaged. In 2007 NAKASEC focused its advocacy work on building its base and engaging its existing constituents in understanding the policies being considered at the federal level, and coordinated nonpartisan voter engagement activities in the three cities. NAKASEC reaches out not only to Korean Americans but to the broader Asian American community as well. In summer 2007, NAKASEC also co-developed the “Dreams Across America” communication campaign—a nationwide journey via train designed to educate the public, through personal stories of immigrants, about the need for just and humane immigration policies in the United States.
Families for Freedom (FfF) is a New York-based multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation. Members are immigrant prisoners (detainees), former immigrant prisoners and their loved ones or individuals at risk of deportation. Through a community organizing model, FfF works with individuals affected by deportation to repeal harsh laws, advocate on behalf of detained individuals and build power in local immigrant communities. Organizers have successfully conducted two Consulate Roundtables to educate consulates and urge them to play a proactive role in their nationals’ deportation cases, and have orchestrated local and national mobilizations. In 2007, FfF focused its efforts on getting foreign governments to better protect the rights of their nationals—an important and potentially effective strategy, since deportation requires two state actors.
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a statewide pro-immigrant coalition with over 50 member organizations, reflects the wide spectrum of Tennessee’s immigrant population—from Kurdish refugees to Somalians to Latinos. TIRRC’s multi-pronged approach consists of base-building, grassroots policy change, defense of civil liberties/civil rights and public awareness building. Accomplishments in 2007 include co-hosting the Southeast Regional Immigrant Rights Conference in Atlanta and successfully campaigning against numerous local anti-immigrant bills, as well as coordinating a 15,000-person immigration mobilization in Nashville—the largest march since the civil rights era. TIRRC also continued to build on its Welcoming Tennessee Initiative (WTI), a cornerstone for its public education and ally-building work.
The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition acts as a key liaison between community-based organizations and government agencies at federal and state levels throughout New England. Major accomplishments over the past year include: nonpartisan candidate education, voter education, and Get Out the Vote campaigns that gave rise to a true immigrant voting constituency in Massachusetts; leading a local and national humanitarian response to the March 6, 2007, immigration raid in New Bedford where 361 workers were removed from the community and from their families (an effort that yielded over $175,000 in contributions and extensive media coverage, and drew visits by Governor Deval Patrick, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator John Kerry, Congressman Barney Frank and Congressman Bill Delahunt); established New American Action Committees in five cities outside of Boston with growing immigrant populations; convened the 2007 Immigrants’ Day at the State House, “Interfaith Summit for Immigrant Justice,” which drew over 1,200 people, with representation from Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist communities; and conducted over 100 Detention and Deportation and Know Your Rights trainings in response to increased U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.