In Celebration of the Movement for Just and Humane Immigration Policy

The organizers of the developing movement for just immigration policy and humane treatment of immigrants are providing a great model of democratic mobilization for the reform of U.S. policies that hurt all Americans. This movement is providing an example of the kind of organized mobilization that will be needed across the country in order to transform U.S. policies contributing to the growth of global warming, poverty, and terrorism.

This just immigration movement is not waiting for Democratic and Republican legislators to create good policy--this movement is defining the democratic standards that should govern our country's development of policy, and is organizing the visible public demand that is needed to insure that our legislators (of both parties) will translate such policy standards into law.

This movement understands that in order to insure such just policy development, we cannot stage one march and then retreat from the streets. This movement has been mobilizing a continuous build-up of democratic forces, and is continuing to organize and develop plans for marches, rallies, boycotts, and strikes that will continue to take place over the course of the next months until our legislators pass the kind of just immigration legislation that ALL the people of this country deserve.

So CHEERS to all the great work and effort that the organizers of, and participants in, the actions of the past month have been dedicating to building this movement!

I hope all Americans will learn from this example what the people of this country can do to change policy when we stop relying on our elected representatives to define policy for us, and realize that it is up to us as responsible citizens of this country to take policymaking back into our own hands, and organize ourselves to demand that our legislators become accountable to serving the best interests of All Americans, instead of only the narrow interests of the wealthy.

Satyagraha Now!