Mexican-American Coalition for Immigration Reform (MXACIR or Coalition MX-A)

Mexican-American Coalition for Immigration Reform (MXACIR or Coalition MX-A)

Overview

* Part of the open-borders lobby
* Escalated its activism in 2010, in response to Arizona’s law, S.B. 1070


Founded in 2009, the Mexican-American Coalition for Immigration Reform (MXACIR or Coalition MX-A) is part of the open-borders lobby. It is an arm of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIR), which operates as its fiscal agent. Through ICIR, MXACIR is allied with: (a) the socialist Center for Community Change (CCC), whose Executive Director is the prominent open-borders radical Deepak Bhargava, a board member of George SorosOpen Society Institute (OSI); (b) the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a project of the CCC; (c) Human Rights Watch (HRW); (d) the National Immigrant Solidarity Network (NISN); (e) the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) which is an arm of the American Immigration Council (AIC); (f) the Migration Policy Institute (MPI); (g) the National Immigration Forum (NIF); and other such organizations. ICIR has also worked closely with the Chicago-based Arab-American Action Network, which was founded by Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor who is a former Director of the PLO press agency and onetime moderator of the PLO Advisory Committee.

MXACIR contends that the federal goverment, in its treatment of immigrants, has failed to uphold the due process guarantees of the Constitution. To rectify this situation, MXACIR urges the U.S. government to focus on:

  • “improving the economic situation of all workers in the United States”

  • “legalizing the status of undocumented immigrants working and living in the United States”

  • “reforming visa programs to keep families together, protecting workers’ rights, and ensuring that future immigration is regulated and controlled rather than illegal and chaotic”

  • “implementing smart, effective enforcement measures targeted at the worst violators of immigration and labor laws”

  • “prioritizing immigrant integration into our communities and country”

  • “respecting the due process rights of all in the United States.”

Since its inception, MXACIR’s National Coordinator has been Lorena Colin, a lawyer who emigrated from Mexico to the United States in 2004.

At a November 3, 2009 rally (titled “Change Worth Fighting for!”) in Chicago, MXACIR joined with ICIR and a host of other open-border groups to support President Obama’s health-care reform plan and to demand immigration reform. Said MXACIR member Fabian Morales: “We are here at the rally … to sign a letter to President Obama reiterating our support but urging him to act courageously in addressing critical issues that will make this a fairer and more inclusive America for all.” Added fellow MXACIR member Arturo Carmona: “The main problems include immigration and financial regulation reform, workers right to organize and addressing our warming planet.”

Since the passage of the Arizona’s 2010 law (S.B. 1070) targeting illegal aliens, MXACIR’s leadership has sought to escalate the intensity of its protests. In April 2010, Fabian Morales was arrested along with 24 others in a Chicago protest. One of the principal organizers of the demonstration, Morales declared: “We’ve tried to do this peacefully and have not been given a peaceful solution. We have to look for another level.” ICIR Executive Director Joshua Hoyt, who was arrested with Morales, explained that this form of “civil disobedience” was necessary to combat the growth of racism in America: “There is now a racial reign of terror spreading across the country and it has to be stopped.”

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