Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc)
651-389-9174 | mirac1.wordpress.com | miracmn@gmail.com
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This has been an active and exciting year for the immigrant rights movement in Minnesota! We write this letter to ask for your support as we continue the struggle to stop deportations and to push forward for legalization & full equality for all immigrants.
MIRAc is an all-volunteer group that raises our money entirely from the community. So please consider giving MIRAc a donation to help us continue our immigrant rights organizing into the new year.
You can you can donate to MIRAc online via paypal at this link: http://bit.ly/sbRNoa or mail a check (made out to “MIRAc” ) to: MIRAc, PO Box 7266, Minneapolis, MN 55407. Any size donation is a great help. A donation of $20 will help make copies of educational materials for a ‘know your rights’ presentation. $40 will help us buy materials to make signs and banners for marches. And $150 will cover our rent for a month!
Our main campaign is the No More Deportations campaign. With this campaign we’re targeting the “Secure Communities” and “Criminal Alien Program” deportation programs. Our biggest success of 2011 was helping stop Secure Communities from being imposed in Minnesota. Minnesota remains one of the few states that hasn’t implemented this program which has caused deportations to increase at least threefold when implemented elsewhere. Our main work this year will be to continue fighting to stop deportations in Minnesota. Our other largest activity this year was again playing a key role in the May 1st march for workers and immigrant rights.
Here’s some of what we did this year:
Community Organizing, Education and Outreach
- Biweekly No More Deportations campaign meetings to involve new people in the movement. No More Deportations / Know Your Rights presentations for about a dozen local churches, community centers and organizations. Media appearances including La Voz del Pueblo radio show, many articles in La Prensa, Gente, and La Conexión Latina newspapers, and coverage in most English-language TV and newspapers around the fired Chipotle workers in late 2010-early 2011. MIRAc booth at Mexican Independence Day on Lake Street in Minneapolis. Mass produced a MIRAc CD in Spanish with music and ‘know your rights’ info.
Direct Support
- MIRAc organized a free immigration legal clinic with help from the National Lawyers Guild. Distributed thousands of “know your rights” cards in the community. Responded to phone calls from people with family members facing deportation.
Marches, Protests, and Political Pressure
- We played a key role in building the coalition for this year’s May 1st workers & immigrant rights march, uniting major immigrant rights groups and unions to have one unified march to the State Capitol in St. Paul. Organized two protests at the Capitol and two call-in/email campaigns targeting Gov. Dayton to veto any bill that included Secure Communities. Helped over 100 fired Latino Chipotle workers organize against their mass firing. Protested outside the Mexican consulate and met with consular officials to show solidarity with Paso a Paso Hacia la Paz caravan of Central American immigrants through Mexico. Organized to stop HF0064 and SF0175, the racist & anti-immigrant “English only” bills in the MN legislature. Co-sponsored protest in support of Los Angeles-based immigrant rights leader Carlos Montes whose house was raided by the LA Sheriff and FBI.
As you can see, we had a very active 2011…and we are just getting started! If you choose to support us, you’ll be helping us continue the fight against deportations in Minnesota, provide direct support to families facing deportation, fight against any other anti-immigrant initiatives that come up, and build toward another successful May 1st march. We also have some amazing media initiatives in the works, including the possibility of starting a MIRAc radio show, exciting video work, and more.
Again, you can you can donate to MIRAc online via paypal here: http://bit.ly/sbRNoa or you can mail a check (made out to “MIRAc” ) to: MIRAc, PO Box 7266, Minneapolis, MN 55407.
In solidarity,
The members of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee
