On a sunny day near Dallas TX, about 60 people gathered in a church hall to talk about immigration from theological, economic, legal, and personal perspectives as part of a workshop called Who is My Neighbor? LIRS Director for Access to Justice Leslie Vélez, Esq., led the group in a discussion to debunk common myths associated with people in the US without authorization. One important take away for workshop goers was Leslie’s clarification about the term “illegal.” It’s important to remember that a lack of authorization or being out of status is an administrative violation, not a criminal one, making the derogatory term “illegals” a misnomer.
Listen to her edited talk:
[audio:https://www.lirs.org/audio/leslieaudio.mp3]When talking about people we need to get the facts right. A civil and productive conversation on how to fix our broken immigration system cannot be sustained in an environment awash in misinformation. Get informed and help inform others. Then find out what else you can do on our Stand For Welcome page, a great place for you and your community to get involved and join your voices with ours as we work to pass fair and humane immigration reform.