ICIRR Hosts Inaugural Policy Summit

What do the following policy leaders have in common?

Miguel Del Valle, Illinois P-20 Council

Dr. Ramanathan Raju, Director of Cook County Hospital

Adolfo Hernandez, Director of Mayor’s Office of New Americans

Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran

Sylvia Aldrete, AT&T Illinois

Margie McHugh, Migration Policy Institute

Juan Ochoa, Miramar Group

Commissioner Mike Alvarez, Water Reclamation District

Sharod Gordon, City Colleges of Chicago

Julio Rodriguez, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

Mary Meg McCarthy, National Immigrant Justice Center Director

Juliana Stratton, Cook County Judicial Advisory Council Director

Regina McGraw, Wieboldt Foundation

Rudy Lopez, Center for Community Change

David Lubell, Welcoming America

Brittney Nystrom, National Immigration Forum

They - and many others - joined with ICIRR and our member organizations to hold the first-ever New Americans Policy Symposium, a series of 7 strategic conversations about the issues that affect immigrant communities in Illinois – Human Services, Health Care, Human Services, Political Engagement, Jobs, Early Childhood Education/Parental Engagement, Immigration Reform, and Uniting America.

Some of the highlights from these conversations included:

-          Development of a policy rubric that encompasses all of the ways that immigrants contribute to the economy – entrepreneurship, adult education, certification, etc.

-          A discussion about the effects of rising immigrant populations on new suburban legislative districts (there are 300,300 unregistered eligible Latino voters in a state where the Governor’s race was decided by 31,000 votes).

-          Strategizing how we approach the General Assembly, teaching them about how immigrant organizations can be a model for Budgeting for Results (example: ICIRR produced 57 percent of CSBG results when we received 30 percent of the funding).

-          A discussion about the alternative health care models for providing care to the 300,000 immigrants who will not be covered by the Affordable Care Act.

-          A presentation by Miguel Del Valle on the lack of immigrant representation in Early Childhood Education and Parental Engagement policy circles (there are twice as many immigrant kids in Illinois as there were just 20 years ago).

-          Sketching a covenant for law enforcement officers to sign on to, committing to not use local resources to cooperate with deportations of non-violent immigrants.

-          Brainstorm of cultural events – soccer tournaments, volunteer fairs, concerts – to bring together immigrant and native-born communities in our Uniting America initiative.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this historic event, especially our national partners who flew to Chicago to help facilitate the Symposium: David Lubell from Welcoming America; Brittney Nystrom from the National Immigration Forum; Rudy Lopez from the Center for Community Change; and especially Margie McHugh from the Migration Policy Institute. 

This inaugural New Americans Policy Symposium will form the background for our ICIRR's 2012 One Nation, One Dream Platform - which we will vote on at our January 11th Member Meeting.  To learn more about joining ICIRR or to make a contribution, contact Lawrence Benito at lbenito@icirr.org or Stephen Smith at ssmith@icirr.org.