Dear MoveOn member,
Monday, May 1, is May Day, a traditional recognition of workers around the world and a day when U.S. immigrants and their allies display their numbers and their strength. This May Day, MoveOn will join our allies in the immigrant rights movement, including the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and Cosecha, in events across the country to demonstrate that immigrant communities are integral to our society.
On May 1, 2017, we will stand together to affirm that Trump's bigoted policies that target and harm immigrant communities—from the Muslim Ban to increased raids on undocumented Americans—are unacceptable.
Hundreds of millions of Americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.
Such is the case with Sonia—a leader with Cosecha, a group of volunteer activists committed to “dignity, respect, and permanent protection for the immigrant community.” MoveOn is proud to be working with Cosecha and other immigrant-led organizations to support their work in this critical time, including the actions that they are organizing for May 1. Sonia is an activist who believes that the best we have to share is our stories. Here is hers:
Sonia was a Spanish and literature teacher in her native Peru before migrating to the United States at the age of 40 to join her family in Massachusetts. She worked in a factory for four years as an undocumented worker. While at that factory, Sonia experienced firsthand the disparities facing immigrant workers. She realized that many workers had not had the opportunity to learn to read, so she started a tutoring program. Then, when she found out her women coworkers were skilled artisans, she started a nonprofit to help low-wage workers turn their particular skill—whether it be sewing, cooking, or jewelry making—into a small business. Sonia counteracted what she saw as deficits with action and hope. And she inspired and uplifted those around her.
Cosecha serves as a way for leaders like Sonia to reach the community in order to educate, protect, and advocate for those who live their daily lives in fear but have so much to contribute.
The hard truth is that families like Sonia’s are being torn apart daily under the Trump administration. Eleven million immigrants—most of whom have U.S. citizen family members, neighbors, employees, or friends—are living with the uncertainty of Trump's terrifying deportation policies.
It is up to each of us to make this society one that lives up to the words of "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses."
Activists like Sonia understand that the United States is facing a moral crossroads on immigration, that the very vibrancy and ingenuity that immigrants bring to this country are integral to our cultural fabric.
May Day is an opportunity to bring to light the struggles of workers and immigrants of all backgrounds, and our Muslim friends and neighbors. It is a day to be reinvigorated by leaders like Sonia and groups like Cosecha that are organizing across our country. Most importantly, it is a chance to show up for the inspiring and diverse immigrant leaders who have asked that everyone join them in demanding a better future.
Thanks for all you do.
—Iram, Josh, Alex, Jo, and the rest of the team
P.S. Joining a rally on May 1, 2017, isn't the only way to be involved. Click here for a list of five ways you can show solidarity to immigrant communities and against Trump's policies on May 1, 2017.
P.P.S. We just released this video. A few immigrants have a message for Donald Trump. Click here to watch it now.
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
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