AFSC Interns travel to Raleigh, NC to Lobby Legislatures

On March 17th I lobbied in Raleigh, North Carolina with the Adelante Education Coalition, to legislators whose priority is education. Adelante works to expand educational opportunities and access for Latino/Hispanic and migrant youth and their families. On my visit with them they gave me the tools I needed to talk to legislators about HB11 and HB343. Both of these bills block access to higher educational success for undocumented persons. I was privileged to talk to Democratic Representative Jeffus of Guilford County about her stance on the bills. She assured me and the other youth in my group that she would appose both bills and work to gain better access to higher education for undocumented persons. Some of the other youth who lobbied to other representatives were met with opposition and ignorance toward the details of both bills (even though they support both bills).

I am grateful for the opportunity to talk to my representatives. I learned the importance of having dialogue with representatives especially those who have different views than mine. Because Rep. Jeffus was “on our side” we were able to get names of other representatives that would oppose the bills and she was able to give us an idea of how likely it is that the bills would pass. The youth that talked to republican representatives that were for passing the HB11 and HB343 had the opportunity to hear the reasons why they supported the bill. Some of their reasons stemmed from prejudices and misinformation. Vice Chair of Education Linda P. Johnson explained to the Latina high school youth that this bill was simply a “Get back” bill. She then explained that community colleges make rules and legislators make laws. When the community colleges ruled to allow undocumented immigrants into the schools that was out of their jurisdiction of authority. “Don’t worry” Johnson said. She went on to say that the bill was only to prove a point to community college that they are not the law and should seek Legislators approval on decisions like what “type” of person should be allowed to go to college.

At the end of the day all the youth with Adelante shared the events of their day lobbying. Adelante Coalition took note of their reasons for supporting the bill and now knows that what they need to do is have more dialogue with certain representatives in order to educate them so that they can make decisions based on facts rather than negative assumptions. I look forward to going back to Raleigh to talk to representatives. I feel like face to face discussions are more effective than mass emails. If you ever have the opportunity to talk to your legislators take advantage of it.