BRINGING IT HOME: IMMIGRATION IN OUR AREA

Thursday, February 15, 2018, the Park Rapids Area League of Women Voters (LWV PRA) will present “Bringing it Home: Immigration in our Area.”

The event will combine a dynamic guest speaker and a panel discussion with local persons to give audience members the chance to ask questions and engage in a conversation about this important topic. LWV PRA anticipates this program to be of great interest in light of current events and the controversy surrounding immigration and immigration law.

The program will begin at 6:00 pm at the Northwoods Bank Community Room, 1200 E. 1st. St, in Park Rapids, MN, with refreshments available at 5:30 pm. The League of Women Voters is offering this FREE event to increase understanding and encourage area voters to be better informed on this major public policy issue.

The evening’s guest speaker will be Martha Castañon, of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) in Moorhead, MN, an office that opened in 2016. Martha was born and raised in rural Moorhead, but began school knowing only three words of English; “Hi, Bye, and OK.” Her family worked in the sugar beet fields of Minnesota, picked cucumbers in Wisconsin and worked in the onion and spinach fields of Texas.

Martha brings more than 35 years of experience in immigration law to ILCM. As a life-long member of the Moorhead community, Martha has witnessed the changing demographics of Minnesota as immigrant groups arrived. During the 1970s, the Moorhead area saw the growth of the Latino community, and in the 1980s, increases in Hmong, Vietnamese, and Cambodian populations. Over the years, Bosnian, Somali, and Kurdish populations in Moorhead have also expanded as these groups were granted refugee status and resettled in Minnesota.


The League’s February 15th event is an attempt to focus on immigration and engage in civil discourse about it as a matter of urgent public policy. What is the impact of immigration in our area? What is it like to be an immigrant in Minnesota today? What is it like to be an immigrant in the Park Rapids area? Audience members will hear Martha’s riveting story of her experiences as an immigrant, and working with immigrants in our area, as well as personal stories shared by a panel of people from our area about how immigration law and policy has affected them.

LWV Minnesota supports incorporating immigrants into our communities by providing access to education, endorsing the development of secure identification documents, and respecting the right of law enforcement personnel to perform their duties without the burden of interpreting federal immigration policies. For more information about LWV PRA, please contact Carolynne White, President, 218-732-9819, or see the website: http://lwvparkrapidsarea.blogspot.com/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeagueOfWomenVotersParkRapidsStateUnit/

You Can Protect Our Democracy? Attend your caucus!

One of the main functions of a local League of Women Voters unit is to educate the public on local issues and ways to participate.  League itself is non partisan; we do not support any political party or candidate. But we encourage all citizens/voters to participate in their precinct caucuses and the election process. Engaged citizens, who follow and try to understand the process, can make informed decisions. In the last election cycle, only about 10 percent of registered voters turned out to help decide who would be their parties’ candidates.

After the last round of elections in 2016, I personally heard many friends state:

• that they chose between the lesser of two evils
• they didn’t like either candidate
• there is no real choice: the candidates are all the same

People who expressed these feelings often decide not to vote. But not participating is not fixing the problem. We allowed 10 percent of the people to do the planning.

On Feb 6, all voters who are eligible to vote in the November elections have an opportunity to change this scenario. Attend your local precinct caucus.  

By law precinct caucuses are meetings run by Minnesota’s major and minor political parties. The caucus is the first in a series of meetings where parties may endorse candidates, select delegates and set goals and values (called party platforms).

You don’t need to already be a member of a particular party. A voter can change which party they identify with. The major political parties do expect that participants pledge to support the party in the upcoming election.

Political parties run their caucus meetings a little differently. So please watch for further information from each party as to place, time and rules for your party’s caucus.

During the caucus, participants will vote on resolutions (value or policy statements) that will be included in the platform, and choose their preference for candidates within the party for each office.  Both parties will have a preference ballot (also called a straw poll) for candidates for governor this year.

Then participants choose delegates who will endorse candidates at future conventions. At the district and state conventions, party delegates will endorse state and federal candidates, including  Governor and Lieutenant Governor, state constitutional offices and Congress.

Know your Rights:

• You have the right to take time off work to be at a precinct caucus or political party convention (if you’re a delegate or alternate). You must give your employer 10 days’ written notice.
• Public universities, community colleges, and public schools cannot hold classes or events after 6 p.m. on the evening of precinct caucuses
  
  Other Links about Caucuses:
  (these are not all from LWV sources but are local information)
  
  Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) Training sessions for Caucuses
• Power Point Presentation on Caucuses 
• Secretary of State's web page on caucuses 
• DFL Caucus information
  
  • DFL Caucuses Times and Places 

•  GOP Caucus information