As people from all over celebrate Valentine’s Day, one organization is committed to making one special group of people know that they are loved and welcomed: immigrants.
For Valentine’s Day, “I Am An Immigrant” is hosting its second annual #ToImmigrantsWithLove campaign. The outpour of solidarity is taking over the internet and the nation with a digital letter-writing and photo-sharing campaign to show support for immigrant communities across the nation. The campaign is also hosting events around the nation to celebrate and support the immigrants in every community.
In addition to a pop-up event in New York City’s Times Square, over a dozen colleges and universities across the country will be hosting postcard-writing events on their campuses. There will also be opportunities to write letters in person in Denver at the Colorado State Capitol, Atlanta’s Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Building, Chicago, San Francisco, and more places across the nation.
As a DACA recipient herself, Pamela Chomba told CASSIUS she’s heard from tourists, immigrants and citizens in Times Square that this was an excellent opportunity to reach out to impacted community members.
“I heard from many including a story from two daughters writing to their immigrant mother,” she said. “I didn’t press them for details, but their mother was the first person they thought of. I loved how their face lit up when thinking of her.”
This year’s campaign is also featuring “LoveBot,” which will deliver a special reply to Twitter users who “favorite” or “love” one of the I Am An Immigrant account’s tweets.
This outpour of love comes at a crucial time as the Senate debates the immigration reform bill. Currently, President Trump is in support of an immigration bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, that would commit a billion dollars toward the wall, limit family-based migration and provide a path to citizenship for DREAMers.
However, Democrats are pushing back again, repeating that DREAMers must be the priority.
“If we want to go beyond border security and the DACA kids, let’s do comprehensive reform,” said Senator Chuck Schumer. “We did it once. It did pretty well…in the Senate. But the first issue at hand: the dACA kids and border security.”
Trump has given Congress until March 5 to come up with a solution he’s willing to sign. In the meantime, take to Twitter and Instagram to show the DREAMers some love.
