Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coaltion (PICC)

PHILADELPHIA – As part of a nationwide call to action, The Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC) announced its support for federal comprehensive immigration reform at a press conference at 11AM on Tuesday, May 4, 2004 at City Hall.

On May 4,2004, Democratic leadership in Congress introduced a comprehensive bill to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and reunite immigrant families. PICC believes that this bill recognizes the need for overall reform of current immigration law and sets forth principals that must be included in any bi-partisan legislation that Congress passes.

PICC supports the principals enunciated within this bill and encourages bi-partisan effort designed to fix our nation’s broken immigration system by accomplishing four inter-related objectives. :

1) Reunite families: Reduce the years of family separation caused by a backlogged bureaucracy and unduly restrictive laws;

2) Reward work: Give immigrants who are in the U.S., working hard, paying taxes, and learning English a chance to earn legal residency over time and to get on the path to citizenship;

3) Respect workers: Reduce exploitation and downward wage pressures by creating a worker visa program that protects the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers and provides equal rights to immigrant workers admitted in the future to fill available jobs; and

4) Reduce illegal immigration: Devise fair and reasonable rules that are realistic and enforceable. Replace the current chaotic, deadly, and illegal flow of exploitable workers and desperate family members with an orderly, safe, and legal flow of workers with full labor rights and family members with legal immigrant visas.

Our immigration system is broken. We need bi-partisan comprehensive reform that will reunite families, protect all workers, and provide a path to legal status. The press conference discussed key features of the proposed legislation, and feature presentations by immigrant leaders. 

VICE CHAIR, ORA RICHARDS was born in Liberia, West Africa. Her family fled to Ghana as refugees in 1990, where she and her husband helped to organize the Buduburum refugee camp which is now home to over 30,000 refugees. A long-term member of PICC, she is an advocate and immigrant consultant in the Liberian community of Philadelphia.

MARIE COOPER is from Liberia and works as a case manager for SEAMAAC, the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition. She was granted asylum and has applied to bring over her family but has not yet received visas for them. She has been separated from her husband and six children for almost 3 years.

JOSE MANUEL GUZMÁN is a former agricultural worker from Mexico who has worked as a mushroom picker in Kennett Square, PA since 1978 and was one of the leaders in the Kaolin Mushroom Worker strike in April of 1993. Since 1994 he has been an organizer and educator for CATA, the Farmworker Support Committee. As an organizer, Mr. Guzmán has educated thousands of farmworkers on environmental health issues and their labor rights.

FATHER ASTANTO is an Indonesian Catholic priest at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in South Philadelphia. He was involved in the peacemaking process during the Timor conflict and is a religious leader in the growing local Indonesian community, estimated at over 5,000 people. Many of his parishioners are currently seeking asylum in the United States, but have been unable to legalize their status due to changes in our asylum and immigration law.

See Photographs from the Press Conference May 4, 2004

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2100 Arch Street, 3rd Floor

PICC is a diverse coalition of community groups, service providers, mutual assistance associations, immigrant leaders, unions, faith communities, and concerned individuals. Our mission is to represent the needs of immigrants in Pennsylvania to policy makers, public officials, and the general public, developing support for fair policies that welcome and sustain new Americans.