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YOUR VOICE AND ENGAGEMENT ARE NEEDED. It is working too!
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| Phone calls for immigration reform needed. And they are making a difference! |
Please see below for all sorts of activities and actions needed. YOUR voice and engagement are needed.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary committee voted in a bipartisan manner to move forward on immigration reform. We need to continue to build momentum for movement forward on the bill quickly. Your calls are necessary. Please see below on what you can do.
See what is happening in the City of Gainesville, which is likely a violation of the Voting Rights Act. YOUR voice is needed there too!
Orale! Our work together builds towards comprehensive immigration reform & better inclusion of Latinos in Georgia!
Thank you!
Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO
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GALEO supports the call for immigration reform! Let's call our U.S. Senators this week!
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Join the efforts towards moving forward on addressing the immigration reform crisis in this nation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in a bipartisan manner to move the immigration reform bill forward. YOUR voice is very much needed at this time. We need to continue movement forward on this very pressing national issue.
 Want immigration reform? Make some calls and work for it! In Georgia, let's call our two U.S. Senators.
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), 770.763.9090
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), 770.661.0999
Tell them you want them to support bipartisan immigration reform.
Want to do more?
Let us know! Here is what we have been up to and willing to work with community members across the state of Georgia to make immigration reform a reality:
- LOBBY TRAINING: GALEO has conducted several lobby training sessions across the state. We will teach community members how to advocate for immigration reform in their own communities. Let us know by sending an email to jerry@galeo.org if you have a community group who would like to get informed and engaged in this issue.
- DISTRIBUTE FLIERS: GALEO has fliers with all of our Congressional members with their contact information on it. YOU can hand these out in your neighborhood, at church or other settings to engage more Latinos and community members to join the efforts to call for bipartisan immigration reform. Phone calls do make a difference. Please send us an email to jerry@galeo.org and ask for these fliers. We will mail you some copies for distribution or email you the file for you to make your own copies and modify for your own community.
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CALL OTHER VOTERS FOR ACTION: Have a bit more time on your hands? Do you want to
call other Latino voters and immigrant friendly voters to urge them to call their Congressional representatives to support immigration reform? We will provide you with a call sheet, a script and instructions for us to make this a reality. YOUR help is needed. Please send us an email to jerry@galeo.org and let us know if you are interested in making some calls from home.
- Tweet! Post on Facebook! Post your activities and when you make phone calls. Take pictures of you making phone calls. This influences others to do the same. Post the phone numbers of the elected official you contacted. Sample: "I just called U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), 770.763.9090, and asked for his support of bipartisan immigration reform." OR "I just called U.S. U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), 770.661.0999, and asked for his support of bipartisan immigration reform."
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Volunteers needed for Saturday and other activities!
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Come help us out for an hour or two on Saturday, June 1st, during the LAA's Copa Latina at the Atlanta Silverback's Park!!! We're going to hand out fliers to motivate people to call our Georgia Congressmen and tell them that we want them to support bi-partisan immigration reform.
If you're available between 12pm-2pm, contact Laura Toro at 404-745-2546 or at laura@galeo.com. The event should be full of good people and good energy, so come on out and share in the fun!
We look forward to hearing from you!
Also, another volunteer wants to canvass Latino businesses in Metro Atlanta to encourage clients and customers to make some calls and distribute fliers. Please reach out to laura@galeo.org if this also interests you.
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Voting Rights Committee for the City of Gainesville Meeting on June 10th.
Spread the word!
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Voting Rights Act & Gainesville
Monday, June 10th 14th, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location:
Cielos Abiertos
1216 Aviation Blvd., Suite 107-112
Gainesville, GA, 30501
Community members wanted to work on this issue are invited to attend.
This will be a working meeting to begin taking actions necessary to continue to push for the elimination of at-large voting and begin organizing for nonpartisan voter mobilization for the 2013 City of Gainesville elections on this issue.
We will have updates from the following committees:
- PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Project Coordinator for City Council Meetings Public Comment Testimony opposing at-large voting process. Schedule some of our community members to attend the City Council Meetings and provide public comments against the at-large voting process. They have been limited to 5 minutes only. All meetings are on Tuesdays at 5:30 PM. (June 18, July 2, July 16, AUG 6, AUG 20, Sept 3, Sept 17, Oct 1, Oct 15)
- AWARENESS: Project coordinator for leading of a Community Awareness effort with other groups of voters in Gainesville
- VOTER MOBILIZATION & EDUCATION: We need to begin the process of registering eligible voters to engage with our education efforts on this issue and encourage holding candidates accountable for what they will do to end at-large voting. This process may also include a petition for a ballot referendum.
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Fayette voting rights case could have implications for Gainesville: Latino organization challenging city's at-large system
POSTED: May 26, 2013 11:23 p.m.
A court recently ruled that Fayette County's at-large voting system violates the federal Voting Rights Act, but Gainesville's attorney maintains the city's system is legal.
The U.S. District Court agreed with the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Fayette County NAACP and African-American registered voters that the voting system discriminated against minorities.
Members of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials have fought with the city of Gainesville over its at-large system, saying it violates federal law by diluting the votes of residents in city districts with majority Hispanic populations.
The council members and the city attorney in the dispute, Robert Brinson, have said the at-large system provides good and equitable representation of all residents by allowing all voters to choose a representative for each ward.
"We believe we're in compliance," Brinson said in a voicemail message to The Times.
In a May 22 letter to Brinson and City Attorney Bubba Palmour, GALEO attorney Keegan Federal said media reports have estimated Fayette spent $300,000 defending the lawsuit and could be
liable for another $300,000 in attorney fees and court costs.
Gainesville has paid Brinson more than $19,600 in attorney fees so far, according to the city's finance department.
Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of GALEO, said the Fayette case was decided by a conservative judge and the Gainesville City Council is doing a disservice to its taxpayers.
"I'm frustrated. I'm upset because the City Council is playing a very serious game with Gainesville taxpayer dollars," Gonzalez said. "And they're not taking this matter seriously, and given that they passed their budget (on May 21), I think it's incumbent on the City Council to be fiscally responsible and address this matter very seriously given the recent outcome of the NAACP and Fayette County and the outcome of that case."
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Wins Voting Rights Act Challenge to Fayette County, Georgia's Discriminatory Election Method
May 21, 2013
Fayette County, Georgia-Today, in an important voting case, a federal court struck down, as violative of the Voting Rights Act, Fayette County's discriminatory at-large method of electing members to the County Board of Commissioners and County Board of Education.
Read more here.
Univision 34 Atlanta has been doing a special investigative series on Gainesville. Please read our press release here. Please see the series online here.
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| Immigration Reform Town Hall meeting in Savannah on Friday! |
Free Immigration Latino Town Hall Meeting in Savannah, GA
Date/time: Friday, May 31st, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Location: First Hispanic Baptist Church, 1 Gamble Road, Savannah, GA 31415
Childcare provided. (No children in diapers)
Come hear from Pastor Samuel of First Hispanic Baptist Church, Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO, a leading advocate for immigration reform in Georgia, Ruth Duran Deffley, Social Worker and public benefits specialist & local immigration attorneys from Savannah.
Call Ruth at 612-386-8049 or email at rdurandeffley@gmail.com for questions about event.
Hosted by First Hispanic Baptist Church and GALEO |
| Let's spread the engagement on immigration reform! YOU can help! |
Thank you once again to all of our volunteers who helped make Sunday, May 5th a big success!
We had three events to coordinate and it happened only because of our dedicated volunteers. The events were the Univision 34 festival at Plaza Fiesta (DeKalb County), Fiesta Atlanta (Centennial Olympic Park) & La Raza's festival at Lake Lanier (Hall County). We were handing out fliers to promote immigration reform and registering voters.
If YOU would like to help handing out some of the fliers we created (image is below) to urge for calls to all of our U.S. Congressmen from Georgia, please send us an email to jerry@galeo.org and let us know how many fliers you would like. We will send you some fliers via U.S. mail for you to hand out in your neighborhood, at your church or at your school. Please support immigration reform by doing this necessary work. Thanks again!
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GALEO Leadership Council moving forward! Join us and let's work on immigration reform!
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The GALEO Leadership Council is moving forward! On-going efforts are towards immigration reform and many participants of our Lobby Day Training have scheduled visits with Congressional leaders to urge for immigration reform. This work and follow up is on-going.
The GALEO Leadership Council heard from Jeb Bush, Jr. on April 3rd conference call and discussed the need for immigration reform and urged for conservatives to get on board with these efforts.
Also, we had our April GALEO Leadership Council's meeting and hosted an update on immigration reform from a person representing the office a Georgia Congressional member.
On April 1st, we celebrated the 6th Annual Cesar Chavez Day at the State Capitol. For pictures, check out our facebook albums. Winning essays are posted online on the facebook notes and on the GALEO.org page.
In the last several months, GALEO Leadership Council members also heard legislative briefings from Georgia State Representative Stacy Abrams (Democrat, House Minority Leader) and from Georgia State Representative Ed Lindsey (Republican, House Majority Whip).
There are lots of things happening.
If YOU would like to join our GALEO Leadership Council, please become a member and let us know that you would like to get involved and participate!
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Become a GALEO Member today!
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Your membership to GALEO supports our work and also allows for you to become part of the GALEO Leadership Council!
Become a GALEO Member and support our efforts further!
Become part of our GALEO Familia by becoming a MEMBER of GALEO. Once you are a member, you may join our GALEO Leadership Council to engage in the many activities we have going on to promote civic engagement and leadership development of the Latino community. All community members supportive of our mission are invited to become members.
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Join the GALEO Familia today!
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