SoCal AILA National Day of Action Recap

On April 12, more than 500 AILA Members and advocates descended on Capitol Hill to meet with their local representatives and advocate for immigration reform as part of AILA’s annual National Day of Action.  AILA Southern California’s contingent, which included over 20 attorneys, DACA recipients, and law students collectively met with 18 Congressional representatives from all over Southern California. While establishing a lasting form of relief for the millions of DACA-eligible youth was at the forefront of the discussions, these meetings allowed practitioners to voice concerns on a variety of issues including: practical changes to improve efficiency in the immigration court system, smart reform to EB-5 and employment-based immigration, the standard of care and access to counsel in area detention facilities ,issues concerning VAWA, concern about the shrinking of family immigration categories, and issues with the current method of ICE enforcement in our communities.

A very special thank you to the following representatives and their staffs who took the time to meet with AILA SoCal’s delegation: Rep. Pete Aguilar, Rep. Judy Chu,  Rep. Paul Cook, Rep. Luis Correa, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, Rep. Steve Knight, Rep. Ted Lieu, Rep. Grace Napolitano,  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Rep. Raul Ruiz, Rep. Linda Sanchez, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Brad Sherman, Rep. Mark Takano, Rep. Mimi Walters, Senator Diane Feinstein, and Senator Kamala Harris.

The overwhelming response from each of these meetings was, despite polling to the contrary, that congressional offices typically receive far more calls, emails, and letters against immigration reform than those in favor. For this reason, it is important for all AILA members to contact their representative regularly to push for smart immigration reform. If you would like to become more involved in congressional advocacy efforts or have any questions regarding attending next year’s National Day of Action, feel free to contact your AILA SoCal Congressional Advocacy Liaisons: Linda Nakamura ( lindanakamura@gmail.com), Randy Steinberg ( randy381@live.com), and Eric Dominguez (edominguez@hirson.com).