Latex for Latino Justice

Show support for working immigrants by sending gloves to Capitol Hill--

To: IRATF (Immigrant Rights Action Task Force) Members and Allies
From: Joan Suarez

Senator Kennedy joined a group of us on a conference call last week. He said he expected a Conference Committee to be named very soon. In the meantime, however, he said that the anti-immigrant forces, led by the Minutemen, are mailing thousands of bricks to members of Congress. These bricks are symbols of division, of isolation, and of an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform.

It’s time to show the strength of the pro-immigrant community by doing our own mailing. Let’s answer the anti-immigrant bricks with a symbol of the positive contributions that immigrants make to the U.S. – a WORK GLOVE.

Now, more than ever, immigrants and their allies must act. We must show Congress that all the bricks in the world won’t hide the fact that what this country needs is comprehensive immigration reform that values immigrants’ hard work and their desire to be reunited with their families.

Here’s what you can do:

* Send a work glove to your Senators and Representatives from your garage, your local hardware store, or your place of employment along with a letter urging them to support fair and just immigration reform (sample letter below).

(To find the mailing address of your elected officials, go to http://www.cirnow.org/content/en/action_center.htm and enter your zip code on the right side of the page where it says, “Find Your Elected Officials.” Mail gloves to their DC offices.)

OR if you don’t have a glove:

*Visit http://www.send-a-workglove.com/ for a quick and easy way to buy the gloves and have them sent directly to your Senators and Representative. All you have to do is put in your information and the gloves will be sent to Capitol Hill along with the letter you see below.

Your name will be added to the bottom of the letter.

* There is another way to obtain work gloves in bulk if you want to plan an action with each member of your group sending a glove. I will provide the address for ordering these glove in a subsequent e-mail.

The more gloves we send in, the more we show that we will not sit quietly by as talk radio hosts and anti-immigrant activists bombard members of Congress with bricks and letters calling for harsher enforcement of broken laws. Instead, we will counter their symbol of division with a symbol of one of our nation’s most respected values: hard work.