In the last few months, the District office of Congressman Luis Gutierrez has been training Family Defenders about immigration actions. Our Family Defenders are learning ways to prepare our families for the application period. 

 

This last Saturday, January 31st, 2015 at Iglesia Rebano, Congressman Gutierrez hosted on event on Immigration executive actions and his special guests were DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Senator Dick Durbin, Pastor Lynette Santiago and additional guests.

 

More than 650 immigrant families attended our event and were able to hear an overview of the immigration actions directly from the USCIS Director Rodriguez. Families Defenders interviewed 500 families one-on-one and informed them about their eligibility and provided materials so that they can prepare for the application period.

 

Congressman  Gutierrez is touring the country to educate immigrants about the President's executive actions on immigration and provide more information about the expansion of the successful DACA program and the new DAPA program for parents of U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident children.

 For more information visit our website at http://gutierrez.house.gov/immigration-action-national-tour or by calling our Immigration Executive Actions hotline  at 773-342-8490.

 

Upcoming event in Chicago:

Congressman Gutierrez and Congresswoman Schakowsky will be attending the event!

When? Saturday, February 14th, 2015

Time?  9:30am-2:00pm

Location?  Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe 1170 N River Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016

 

Congressman Gutiérrez has pledged to make Chicago a model community for orienting!

January 30, 2015 - March 27, 2015

     Last Friday, January 30, 2015 the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture opened the second edition of Homecoming, which was titled Homecoming "That's Puerto Rican". This edition featured a rich variety of local Puerto Rican artists with an aesthetic in which notions of cultural preservation takes precedence. The curatorial discourse divided the artwork in four different themes to categorize this collection: Landscapes & portraits, Across the Street, Legends and folklore and Bread and Memory. This exhibition features the work of Janice Aponte, Miguel Arroyo, Elias Carmona, Noelia Cruz, Lizette Cruz, Benjamin Mercado, Evette Morales, Leo Negrón, Moses Pérez, Patricia Pérez, Francisco Rosado and Martin Soto. This is a very heartwarming exhibit with special attentions in traditional aspects of the Puerto Rican culture.

     The first edition of Homecoming, which took place in September 2014during the museum's grand opening, showed a group of Puerto Rican artists that posses a more individualistic character in matters of their creative language in the "intellectual urge to create original work that mirrors a shared history and the idiosyncrasies of producing art in a transnational context." In this first edition, we had the pleasure of exhibiting these internationally known artists: Bibiana Suárez, Candida Alvarez, Edra Soto, José Lerma, Josue Pellot and Nora Maité Nieves.

    Homecoming is a one-year round exhibition project presented in the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture with the purpose of featuring Puerto Rican artists in Chicago and showing the diversity portrayed through our arts and culture.

After one of the highest increases in high school enrollment for 2014-15, Clemente is currently supporting this year's 8thgrade students in investigating the great, educational opportunities that the school has to offer!  RCCA is quickly gaining recognition within the community and surrounding area with its highly sought-after CTE career options in Allied Health, Culinary Arts, and Broadcast Technology, as well as its current transition as an IB Candidate School.

During our recent visit from Jose De Diego, inquiring 8th graders received a tour of the building, met with De Diego Alumni to hear more about high school life at Clemente, and also had the opportunity to visit classrooms to see first-hand what a high school class at Clemente entails. Students received information about our programs and were invited to attend our upcoming open house. For 7th and 8th grade students interested in learning more about student life at Clemente, we encourage you to attend our Cocoa and Cookies open house on Thursday, February 5th from 6:30-7:30pm!

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The Alternative Schools Network held its annual summit on youth employment on Friday, January 30, 2015.  Entitled "Youth Employment: A Smart Investment", the event was co-sponsored by and held at the Chicago Urban League on Chicago's south side. Over 275 individuals attended the event, many from area non-profits and alternative high schools.  All that attended were deeply invested in youth employment and had either employed youth through city or state funding, or worked with youth in some capacity. Dr. Paul Harrington of Drexel University presented data and findings showing Chicago, and the state of Illinois, as the leader in youth unemployment - particularly in Black men ages 16-24 years of age.  This finding was startling and raises major concerns and ramifications for the future of Black youth and their ability to enter the workforce.  A copy of the report can be find at http://www.asnchicago.org/youth-employment.  Over 20 youth from area community based organizations and alternative high schools testified to a panel of 14 city and state legislators concerning the importance of work and the skills they learned during their employment over the summer of 2014.  

 

 

A call to action was put forth for organizations to demand that Governor Rauner set aside funding for summer employment opportunities for youth.

Q: What were the roots of your civic activism?

A: I didn't really become an activist until I got to law school. I graduated [Northwestern] in '69, right at the height of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Then I became a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. The Chicago conspiracy trial was going on; these anti-war activists were put on trial for crossing state lines to encourage riots-basically to encourage demonstrations against the war.

It was a very colorful trial, and the defendants were from different parts of the anti-war movement; one was a leader of the Black Panthers. I used to go down there and watch. There was this judge, Julius Hoffman, who was very against the defendants. There was a lot of commotion and a lot of acting out and drama in the courtroom. I became very immersed in wanting to become a lawyer who represents people who are fighting injustice, and [in] working for people's rights.

I joined a group of lawyers-which I still am part of-called the People's Law Office, which started in 1969 and is still going strong 45 years later. We represent people who are victims of police abuse and police brutality. We also are very involved in uncovering people who have been wrongfully convicted and have been in prison a long period of time. We've been able to free many people from prison.