Update on Immigration

On Wednesday, November 14, our League will hold an open meeting for the public on the topic of immigration featuring Congressman Christopher Shays and Paul Pimentel, 4th Congressional District Director at 1 p.m. at the Lapham Center.

Our League's Immigration Study Group has been meeting since June to investigate the immigration issue, which is hotly contested at the local, state, and national levels.

Guest speakers at these meetings have included Carola Bracco, Executive Director of Links in Mt. Kisco, an organization that works to educate, empower and employ recent immigrants; Bob Kucinda, a student advisor for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon High School, seeking to understand the challenges immigrants face; and Ruth McGill, and ESL teacher for NCPS, who spoke about her experience with non-English speaking students and families in New Canaan. League members from neighboring communities also attended these meetings.

As a result of the work of this 18-member study group, our League proposes to write a series of articles over the next three months exploring such topics as the values and principles underlying current immigration policy and the impact of immigration on American society.

Leagues all over the US are undertaking a 2-year LWVUS Immigration Study aimed at helping communities understand the complexities of the issue in order to make informed policy decisions. National study materials can be viewed at lwvus.org.