We are very excited to have Eddie Meyers, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Juan Vargas, at our next meeting on Thursday, July 11, at 9am. Congressman Vargas has been busy with legislation and getting support from the Hispanic Caucus. He wrote a letter to Congress opposing the reconstruction of border walls through Friendship Park and got several other Congress members to sign it. We want to hear from Mr. Meyers what approach to immigration reform he believes is most plausible.
The LWVC Immigration Interest Group which was started with our committee plus that in the Pasadena area introduced a request to LWVUS to increase its advocacy on immigration. We had 39 Leagues support that in the LWVUS Program Planning process in February, and we worked hard at the national Convention in June to get a resolution passed.
We (Jane Andrews and I plus others around the country) worked with LWV staff and the Resolutions Committee, who ended up rewriting our resolution as follows:
Whereas the League of Women Voters has had a long-standing immigration position since 2008 and a strong commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), be it resolved that LWVUS actively advocates and supports Immigration Reform at all levels of LWV.
We are now busy forming a national immigration group who will advise and assist LWV in its advocacy and do some ourselves. If you would like to join the Immigration Discussion Group, sign up for the group email list (click “ask to join the group”) and attend its first meeting on Sunday, August 14, at 2pm on Zoom.
Children’s Party at Tijuana shelter
What a Party We Had!
I struggled down the stairs from where my family bed is because the steps are almost as tall as my legs, but I was just in time for hot dog lunch. Everyone at the Pro Amore Dei Shelter in Tijuana sat at long tables and they passed out hot dogs, juice and watermelon from the kitchen. I squirted the ketchup out of a plastic bag onto my hot dog.
Then they cleared the tables away and these ladies brought in lots of crafts. My favorite was having my picture taken with my Mom and framing it. I got to decorate the frame and put stickers on it. They took 120 pictures because everyone wanted one. But at another table, everyone was shakin' and bangin' – the bigger boys had bongo drums but they gave me a shaker. The teacher had sticks and we sure had fun! That table also had feathers & pompoms to glue on pictures and bottles of bubbles they handed out. Then I went to the table where they were stringing beads and I made a bracelet for my Mom. My big sister made a butterfly using white toilet paper rolls. She had to cut out the wings, put stickers on them, and then glue everything together. Meanwhile, I got my face painted and got a tattoo.
At the end, everyone lined up for ice cream cones (chocolate is my favorite) and then, oh my gosh, there was this huge piñata and we started to bang on it. The man controlling it kept taking the stick away from one kid so another one could hit it. The candy came out gradually. One girl just sat on the floor under it and scooped the candy under her legs – so clever! It was a really fun day because we don't have toys here at the shelter so we usually are quite bored. We do go to school though across the street and so I am learning how to read.
We do have a TV, but I sure wish we had some toys – people could donate them to the ladies – contact Beryl Flom.