At El Pueblo

We work to improve the lives of our community and that often has us visiting the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) to talk to our representatives, monitoring new bills, and speaking out for and against legislation.

Community

We also help community members understand what our rights are and the different ways that we can organize together to achieve positive changes for our communities. Alongside our allies, El Pueblo meets with legislators to provide information on how the bills being proposed will impact the Latine community; prepares testimony for committee hearings; holds press conferences to increase awareness of the issues; and participates in statewide coalitions to develop strategy and act on a variety of issues.

Representative relationship

We also convene community members at the General Assembly and local municipal hearings to voice their concerns about what is happening in their communities and hold our representatives accountable, all of which creates a better constituent-representative relationship.

WE STAND FOR

El Pueblo strives for immigrant justice. We believe that immigrants deserve to be safe and supported. El Pueblo resists against anti-immigrant legislation that instills fear, foments distrust, and creates obstacles for immigrants and their families. Through collaborative efforts, we organize ways to support each other while we march toward further progress. The Community Action ID program represents just one continued effort by the community to improve security and access to resources, despite continued legislative attacks. El Pueblo believes immigrants deserve to be heard. We uplift members of our community to learn the processes of our government and to speak from their own experiences directly with our elected representatives.

Our reproductive justice work looks like advocating for the bodily autonomy of our community members and acknowledging NC’s harsh history of reproductive oppression against Black and Indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups. 

We believe that a person making a reproductive health choice should not be in a dire situation. El Pueblo believes that medically accurate information on and proper healthcare for reproductive health should be easily accessible and available. We speak to our representatives and holding them accountable for providing gender-affirming reproductive healthcare, access to safe abortion care, addressing the maternal health crises, and raising children in safe environments. We hope to cultivate a community of people who are aligned in these values which hold the keys to liberation in this state and around the globe.  

The key components of reproductive justice include: the right to have a child, the right to NOT have a child, and the right to raise that child in a safe environment. The term was coined by a group of Black women in Chicago in the mid-1990s to ensure that the movement addressed the needs of Black and Indigenous individuals, and those who are not upper or middle-class (SisterSong).

El Pueblo stands up for our LGBTQ+ community. We believe defending the Latine and immigrant community means supporting LGBTQ+ justice. When anti-LGBTQ+ legislation threatens to discriminate against our queer community, attempts to impede access to healthcare and deprive everyone of art and education, we are proud to support our partners such as Equality NC to defend against these attacks. As a Latine organization, we recognize the importance of being welcoming and affirming to the LGBTQ+ members of our community and their families. It is important to us that our LGBTQ+ community members are supported, represented, and empowered to advocate for their rights. 

El Pueblo works to make the voice of our community heard through the democratic process. Getting out the Latine vote empowers our community to hold legislators accountable and bring supportive leadership to office. Resources such as our annual nonpartisan voter guide and Votemos NC, our bilingual online civic information hub, helps prepare voters with the information they need on government offices, the electoral process, and voter requirements so that they can be ready for the ballot box. Through voter registration, lobbying campaigns, or speaking out against redistricting that fractures and disenfranchises communities of color, we make sure Latines have a say in our democracy regardless of immigration status.

Drivers Licenses

The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandated states to require proof of citizenship for REAL ID driver’s licenses and identification cards. In NC, then-Gov. Mike Easley followed that mandate and signed a law preventing undocumented immigrants from getting licenses. For over 15 years since, the undocumented community has had continue living their daily lives in fear, knowing that getting behind the wheel could lead to being arrested.

  • Driving to work.
  • Picking up and dropping kids to school
  • Attending faith services
  • Grocery shopping

All of these activities require someone to get behind the wheel of a vehicle and be on the road. Many community members are often required to prove their identity for a number of reasons each day, a reliable state-issued ID would allow them to receive urgent services with schools, health centers, city departments, and social service agencies, or participate in the cultural and business life of their community- all with the peace of mind currently not provided to them. A driver’s license is a step towards protecting our community after years of state policies that have done the opposite. We support access to drivers’ licenses for all qualified residents in North Carolina, regardless of immigration status and have worked to present bills in the NCGA to codify this work into law.

Tuition Fairness

Access to higher education allows our community members to pursue careers and passions that may require advanced degrees. Current North Carolina law forces all undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition costs, which is over three times as costly as in-state rates, effectively blocking thousands of graduating high school youth every year from continuing with their education. This is a disgraceful waste of our students’ potential to grow and succeed, and we actively work alongside organizations like the Adelante Coalition and others to advocate and propose bills that would allow students to go to college in the state they grew up in.

ICE Out Of NC

The use of raids and targeting of racial minorities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains the single greatest cause of family separation in our state.  Their operations mimic those of political retaliation squads, arresting and deporting over 300 North Carolina residents during the aftermath of the November 2018 elections that saw victories for progressive sheriffs who championed building relationships with their respective immigrant communities.  We condemn the practice of separating families and loved ones from each other, and support a complete removal of ICE and its collaboration with local and state authorities in North Carolina.