I’m hoping this gets wide participation and alot of attention. Event and traffic info below
UPDATES FROM YWCA
Join us on Thursday, February 18 for Day Without Latinos and Immigrants
YWCA Madison is on a mission to eliminate racism and empower women. In alignment with this urgent mission, the YWCA Madison supports Voces de la Frontera’s Day Without Latinos and Immigrants as a response to proposed legislation that is already creating a climate of fear and anxiety for immigrant community members who are afraid of deportation and the risk of having their families separated. Voces de la Frontera asks all Wisconsin businesses to join in supporting a mobilization to the Capitol in Madison on February 18 at 10 a.m.
In 2006 and 2007, businesses that relied on Latinos and immigrants as workers and customers allowed their employees to join historic civil rights marches for Latino and immigrant civil rights. In Wisconsin, more than 100 businesses actually shut down their operations during the mobilization in a show of solidarity. Let’s make this happen again!
The United States is one of the most diverse nations today, thanks to the millions of immigrants who have enriched our culture and contributed to our economic growth. YWCA USA has called for passage of broad and humane national immigration reform legislation that will provide a clear roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring Americans, including DREAMers, and will make it possible for them to fully integrate into the nation’s social and economic fabric, with all of the rights and responsibilities entailed in full integration. YWCA’s position is that citizenship should ensure that everyone living in the United States has access to economic supports, affordable health care, workers’ rights, and the freedom to live free from the fear of detention and deportation.
In Wisconsin, there are currently a number of bills that threaten the basic rights of immigrants in our community. We are extremely concerned about the effects this legislation would have on undocumented residents of our State, on law enforcement and on the safety of our communities. Below a brief summary for each of these bills and their negative impact on Latino and immigrant communities. The Wisconsin assembly is scheduled to vote on this legislation on Tuesday, February 16.
1) AB 723/SB 533: This bill will block local control and local IDs for undocumented people and those who lack documents to obtain a state ID, resulting in people being unable to vote or access social safety net programs like food stamps. This bill is an escalated attack on local control, and it explicitly will disenfranchise and disproportionately impact immigrants, transgender people, the homeless, the elderly, and formerly incarcerated people.
2) AB 450/SB 369: This bill will prohibit the police and local government agencies from creating policies that prevent officers & government employees from asking members of the public about their immigration status or from collaborating with ICE to the maximum extent. This bill encourages racial profiling and enables police and other government employees to act at immigration agents. Therefore, it further decreases trust between communities of color and the police and will increase safety concerns because thousands of community members will be afraid to call on the police when there is an emergency. Additionally, low-income families with children who are eligible for necessary benefits are likely to choose not to access these benefits for fear of deportation, thereby negatively impacting dependent children and their families.
The YWCA Madison will invite staff, volunteers and residents to join in solidarity at the Capitol, and we encourage all of our partners to do the same. If you would like to join YWCA, meet in the lobby of our downtown location at 101 E. Mifflin Street on Thursday, February 18 at 9:45 a.m. to walk over to the Capitol together. To learn more about A Day Without Latinos & Immigrants, or how you can involve your business or organization, please visit the Voces de la Frontera website.Thank you,
YWCA Madison
INFO FROM THE SCHOOLS
Dear Community leaders,
As you may have heard, there is an event planned this Thursday to rally support for the Latino community. The Day Without Latinos, is planned to show opposition to anti-immigration legislation at the State Capitol. We know that many of our students may be interested in participating in this event, so I wanted to give you a quick update on our planning.
Later today, I’ll be sending a message of our families with an update. It’s important to us that all of our Latino students and families feel welcomed, supported and safe in our community and schools. We also want families to know that as issues like this come up, we work to provide opportunities for students to discuss them in school in a respectful and thoughtful way. We also want to make sure that families are aware that the event is not school sponsored and students who participate will not be supervised by school staff.
I’m including a copy of my message to families below.
Because we know some of our students will participate, I would also encourage any of you who are able to attend the event, to help in providing a positive adult presence at the event for those who do choose to participate.
If you have any questions, please let me know. And thank you for your support!
Jen
Dear Families,
As you may have heard, there is an event planned this Thursday to rally support for the Latino community. The Day Without Latinos, is also planned to show opposition to anti-immigration legislation at the State Capitol. It is important to us as a school district that, in the face of harmful legislation at the state level, that our Latino students and families feel welcomed and safe in our community and schools. And it’s especially important that we support our students who will need an opportunity to discuss these issues and express their feelings.
We also know that some of our students and families may participate, and we wanted to make sure you have the opportunity to talk with your student if they plan to participate.
As always, we encourage students to stay in school during the school day as to not negatively impact their instructional time. If and when students choose to participate, we want to make sure you are aware that events like this are not school sponsored, so students will not be supervised by our staff. We will also follow our normal attendance policy.
We also want you to know that we are working with schools to offer opportunities for students to talk about issues like immigration at school. Some student groups will be handing out information at school or providing opportunities for discussion. Our teachers have resources for discussing issues like this in the classroom, allowing all students to express their feelings and respectfully consider all perspectives.
As a reminder, as issues of immigration are discussed, our staff do not discuss individual immigration status with students and will continue not to do so.
We thank you for your partnership, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your school principal.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Cheatham
Superintendent
TRAFFIC DELAYS
CONTACTS: Tom Mohr, City Traffic Engineering
608-267-8725
tmohr@cityofmadison.comTRAFFIC DELAYS DUE TO PROTESTS
On Thursday, February 18th, a “Day without Latinos and Immigrants” rally is planned for the capitol square between 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Metro Transit buses will be off the capitol square streets and detoured onto the Outer Loop. Details are located here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/detours/caploop/weekday.cfm
In addition, a walkout is planned at Madison East High School. Beginning at 9:30 a.m., demonstrators will walk from Madison East High School (2222 E Washington Ave) along East Washington Avenue, up to the capitol.
The inbound lanes of East Washington Avenue are expected to be restricted to one traffic lane, which will result in traffic delays.
If you have any questions, direct them to the contact person listed above.
BUSINESSES SHUTTING DOWN
Thank you to place like RP’s Pasta who are participating today.
RP’s Pasta Company will be shutting down February 18th , our staff will be gathering at the capitol at 10:00 am to support our Latino workers. If you own a business or want to support Latino workers please check out.
