Latino Immigration

Pro Immigration: http://latinospro.org/

Latino Progresando, an accredited organisation by the Board of Immigration Appeals (part of the Department of Justice, and the highest immigration court in the United States) state their mission is to help immigrants with the highest quality, and low cost legal immigration services as well as support from the community to help with education and to organise around policy that affects immigrants. The organization started in 1998 with just one volunteer, yet today, they are a diverse team based in Chicago to help the communities within the city (one of the largest Mexican communities in the Midwest), in immigration legal services, theatre arts, and community development. The organization express how they are '[working] toward the day when every person can live in a stable, respected and culturally-rich community.' This highlights one of the major issues with immigration in the United States, due to the fact that the Hispanic/Latino are now the largest minority in America, yet there are issues due to them being marginalised. The website outlines their three main principles which are part of their values which they are driven by. Firstly, that injustice needs to be recognised, especially within communities. Secondly, their supportive sense of community advocates that every decision they make must be good for the community, not the individual, nor the organization. Lastly, they signify that they do the best they can to help their communities by constantly and attentively working with the community to achieve the best results.

Luis Gutierrez founded and is currently the Executive Director of Latinos Progresando when he was just 24 years old, volunteering his time. Luis was the son of Mexican immigrants, yet was born and raised in Chicago, which the neighbourhood he lived in was one of the largest Mexican communities in the Midwest. Today, with Luis' initiative, Latinos Progresando reaches out to thousands of families annually within the issues of immigration in the US. LP has built the largest Latino-led family based immigration legal services programme in the State of Illinois, by providing specifically victims of domestic violence free legal support. One of the other encouraging aspects of this organisation is Gutierrez also created a theatre programme that performs stories of Chicago's Latino community, by showcasing Latino history, culture and ultimately to promote social equality and justice. This encourages people of all ages but specifically the young individuals as one of LP's other values is to help the future Latino generation.

 
 
Conclusively, Latino Progresando's main focus areas is to help families, the community and to help them all progress and to help increase social justice and strength within the community. They state that they made these theatre productions to help families due to the different legal matters, countries and languages that can make it hard for them to communicate and understand each other, therefore this organisation helps to serve families by offering them the resources they need to create a strong, unified community.

Anti Immigration: 'Save Our State'

The Save Our State (SOS) activist organisation is an extremist group, completely opposed to illegal immigration in Southern California. The organisation's website no longer exists, since in November 2009 it became inactive due to the response of the anti-immigration group. The origin of the group derives from California's 1994 Proposition 187, otherwise known as the 'Save Our State' initiative. The proposition advocated to deny taxpayer-funded health care and education to illegal immigrant residents in California, and although it was approved by the majority of voters at this time, it was then challenged in court and was eventually dismissed in a US district court a few years later. The organisation was set up by Joseph Turner who opposed immigration reform groups and believed that the United States would not have any problems with illegal immigration if their group succeeded enough. The organisation is renowned for its aggressive, extremist tactics, as many members of the activist group travel to other communities to protest with signs and weapons including the use of pepper spray and video cameras to record their activities and experiences that they would show on their website.

 

This video above shows a short depiction of one of the Save Our State rallies in Santa Clarita in February 2010. It showcases a snippet of the tense altercation between the activists who believe in anti-illegal immigration and the Hispanic/Latino activists who are also demonstrating their right to be in America. The difference so far in comparing the pro-immigration organisation and the anti-immigration activists, demonstrates how the extreme activists are the ones who are anti-immigration, by advocating violence and harassment to make their opinions and values known. The Save Our State group are labelled in the media as white supremacists by simply how they act aggressively to expose their beliefs. Some citizens say that the group is a disgrace to America due to how they express their beliefs and opinions and how they single out innocent individuals on the street just by associating a Hispanic/Latino person as an illegal immigrant which highlights the ignorance in the group. Overall, it indicates how the issue is still prevalent in America, and how it will continue with such a divide on the matter.