IE Trains Grassroots Activists to Meet with their Congresspeople In-District

By Gannon Long on 08/17/2010 @ 03:16 PM

Last Wednesday, August 11th, Immigration Equality Policy Director Julie Kruse and I trained 20 activists on how to meet with your members of Congress. The meetings allow you to urge your member of Congress to cosponsor UAFA – and to build an ongoing relationship with them. We scheduled the training at the start of Congress’s August recess, when Representatives and Senators will be home - and close to you and available to meet! - until mid-September.

My favorite part of the training was being able to interact with activists from all across the country. The webinar allowed people to submit questions in real time, and to meet each other in the training chat room.

Most of the folks who joined in are in binational couples. While many of you have heart breaking stories of being separated from their homes, partners, and loved ones, you also display inspiring resilience and courage. From all over the country (and the world), activists on the call demonstrated how dedicated they are to boosting each other’s spirits; meeting with their representatives; and doing whatever it takes to pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA).

Everyone on the call agreed to meet with their members of Congress to talk about UAFA. In the coming weeks, I am setting up regional groups across the country, to keep the focus on key districts and states. This way, members of binational couples and allies from the same state or Congressional district can keep in touch with each other and coordinate meeting strategies. We can also work together to modify our training, to target it more toward specific regions or members of Congress.

Meeting with your representative takes some persistence, but we ask you to do it because it is the single most effective way to convince your member of Congress to co-sponsor UAFA. At the end of the day, it’s not facts and figures from Washington that move hearts and minds in Congress – it is people like you, from all across the country, telling your stories about facing tremendous obstacles just to hold on to the people you love – and showing them that UAFA is a critical issue facing constituents in their districts.

If you missed the webinar and would like a PDF of the slide show, or would like help getting your meeting off the ground, please contact me at glong@imeqactionfund.org. I also encourage you to visit our Take Action center. I look forward to working with you to pass UAFA.

¡Juntos podemos! (Together we can!)