On January 22, 2013, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO) organized an “Immigrant Advocacy Day.” CAIR Coalition’s social work intern, Andrew Doll, joined an estimated 100 representatives from various immigrants’ rights organizations in their advocacy efforts.
The group traveled to Richmond to advocate for legislation that would benefit immigrants living in Virginia. There were a total of eight issues on the legislative agenda for Immigrant Advocacy Day. Advocates supported the following: legislation that would allow immigrant students to be eligible for in-state tuition, legislation that ensures employees are duly compensated for the work they complete, legislation that prohibits discrimination in the workplace, legislation that seeks to increase and facilitate contracting with minority-owned businesses, legislation that prohibits discrimination in the workplace, legislation to raise awareness of human trafficking, and legislation aimed at curbing child prostitution and decriminalizing prostitution by minors.
Upon arrival in Richmond, the VACOLAO group broke up into smaller teams, in order to reach more legislators. CAIR Coalition’s representative Andrew Doll joined a group of five others from different immigrant advocacy organizations. This small group was able to meet with representatives from multiple legislators’ offices, including: State Senators Deeds, Hanger, Locke, McEachin, Obenshain, and House Delegates Bulova and Comstock.
Within the group, each advocate was able to share personal stories about a particular legislative issue. Members of the newly founded organization “Dreamers of Virginia” shared their stories of coming to the United States as undocumented children, attending Virginia schools, and finding out upon high school graduation that due to their undocumented status, they would be forced to pay out of state tuition to attend college. These individuals showed tremendous courage in coming to Richmond to advocate on behalf of themselves and their fellow dreamers.
As a representative from CAIR Coalition, Andrew was the team’s spokesperson on the issues of human trafficking and child prostitution. Andrew and his team advocated for support of a bill that would mandate the posting of human trafficking notices in truck stops. Truck stops are known to be high areas of activity for prostitution. These notices would help protect the sex workers who are often victims of human trafficking by providing them with resources for help. In addition, Andrew and his team members advocated for a bill that would expunge charges of prostitution from the records of anyone who was a minor at the time of the arrest. Such a bill would recognize that minors involved in the sex trade are almost always coerced to do so, and would protect them by decriminalizing their actions.
As a social work intern with CAIR Coalition, Andrew has interacted with clients who have been victims of both human trafficking and child prostitution. Such individuals are often arrested for prostitution, and then placed into removal proceedings as a result of an undocumented status. The bills that we advocated for would seek to help the victims of human trafficking and child prostitution. They would officially recognize the fact that these children are victims of a crime, not perpetrators. Without a criminal record, they would not be placed into removal proceedings, and would be able to access the high quality mental health services we have in the United States.
