Join WISDOM's Movement for Immigrant Rights

Thank you for your interest in joining WISDOM's Movement for Immigrant Rights! Keep reading to learn about our campaign goal and four subcommittees that you can get involved in. After signing up, you will hear from a local organizer on how to join in meetings. WISDOM will still hold our regular monthly meetings on the second Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m. 

Campaign Goal: To empower individuals and communities to fight for immigrant rights, ending discriminatory practices, restoring fair access to identification, and preparing for emergencies. We want people to select a group that resonates with them, meet with point people, and join in researching and reaching out to partners for effective change.

Sign our interest form to stay connected with us on updates about our campaign, actions, events, meetings and more. If you are an organization in Wisconsin that would like to join our efforts to advocate for immigrant rights, please fill out your organization affiliated information on the bottom! For questions, or concerns email our organizer Amanda Ali at aali@wisdomwisconsin.org.

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Contact Information
Interests

1. Know Your Rights & Family Emergency Preparedness

Purpose: This group will review and curate tools to equip immigrants and allies with critical information about their rights and emergency preparation strategies. This includes knowing rights during police interactions, ICE encounters, and preparing family and personal plans in case of unexpected detentions or deportations. They will make suggestions for our task forces to implement.  

Ideas to Get You Started:

  • Educational Workshops: Host "Know Your Rights" workshops in communities and online. Ensure resources are available in multiple languages.

  • Emergency Preparedness Packets: Distribute family-focused packets to help immigrants plan for emergencies, focusing on legal, financial, and family-related preparedness.

  • Volunteer Roles: Task forces can seek community leaders who can serve as point people to connect with families and lead local preparedness meetings.

2. Public Safety: Ending 287(g) and limiting sheriffs' collaboration with ICE.

Purpose: For years, sheriffs notorious for racism, xenophobia, and civil rights violations have been able to target and attack immigrants in their communities by participating in a program known as 287(g). This program is a set of partnerships between Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and state and local law enforcement agencies that effectively turns local officials into federal immigration (ICE) agents. It also leads to racial profiling, fear within immigrant communities, and disrupts local trust.  Many communities that do not have a formal 287(g) agreement nevertheless collaborate closely with ICE in ways that inhibit public trust in law enforcement and diminish its effectiveness.

This group will review actions already taken to end 287(g) in the counties where such an agreement exists and make recommendations regarding next steps to persuading sheriffs to end the agreements.  It will also review data already collected by task forces across the state on collaboration between sheriffs and ICE and make recommendations to the group about actions task forces can take to persuade sheriffs to collaborate less in the interest of improving trust and making their communities safer.  These recommendations will constitute an action plan for chapters to take back to their task forces to reduce voluntary collaboration between local officials and federal immigration enforcement.

Ideas to Get You Started:

  • Conversations with Sheriffs: Task forces can meet with sheriffs to find out the degree of voluntary collaboration that exists in their areas.  They can try to persuade sheriffs that immigration enforcement is a federal issue, not a local one, and that local involvement in immigration enforcement makes communities less safe.

  • Community Petitions: Task forces can mobilize community support through petitions aimed at city and state officials to end 287(g) agreements.

  • Public Awareness Campaign: Task forces can share personal stories, articles, and information on social media to educate the public about the negative effects of 287(g).

  • Volunteer Roles: Task forces will need dedicated individuals to meet with local officials, attend city council meetings, and act as spokespeople for the campaign.

3. Driver's Cards for All

Purpose: Advocate for restoring access to Driver's Cards for people who are undocumented, one of the most common avenues for separating families in Wisconsin. Winning drivers licenses for all would not just benefit immigrants, it would have a major impact on all Wisconsinites. The Wisconsin Budget Project, an initiative of Kids Forward, noted in their Widen the Roads report the benefits of providing driver licenses to undocumented individuals, such as lower insurance costs for all drivers, greater access to gainful employment, and safer roads overall. It will enable safe, legal transportation options and enhance quality of life by providing access to work, school, and essential services.

This group will work alongside the Coalition for Safe Roads.  On the WISDOM side, they will complete the Power Map based on recent election data to identify individual legislators who may be on the fence about passing the bill.  (A bill has already been drafted.)  They will identify which of these legislators are in districts with a WISDOM chapter, and write a persuasive script.  They will share the script, map, and web-based software with the statewide coalition so that our chapters can ask their members to call other WISDOM members in those legislative districts.  The script will ask fellow WISDOM members to contact their legislator, urging them to support the bill.

Ideas to Get You Started:

  • Calling WISDOM members: Task forces can use the Power Map and the web-based software to call other WISDOM members in the right districts, urging them to contact their on-the-fence legislator.

  • Contacting farmers, business leaders, and law enforcement: Task forces can work to persuade farmers, business leaders, and law enforcement to be vocal in their support of the drivers' cards bill.

  • Going to Madison: Task forces can take part in a visit to Madison to lobby legislators directly, especially if they are in key districts with on-the-fence legislators.

  • Volunteer Roles: Volunteers will be needed to make calls, lobby legislators, and spread awareness through community forums and social media.

4. Employer Emergency Preparedness

Purpose: Empower employers to create emergency preparedness plans that may protect their workers and their businesses.

This group will review and curate tools that can be shared with farmers, businesses, and factory owners and managers to help them prepare for potential raids.  The group will make recommendations to our task forces for approaching employers in their areas and helping plan strategies for keeping their workers and their businesses safe.

Ideas to Get You Started:

  • Identify Vulnerable Employers: Task forces can use community resources to determine which employers are likely candidates for federal immigration action.

  • Visits to Employers: Task forces can talk with identified employers to help them learn their rights and prepare emergency plans, including steps for preparing for raids.

  • Volunteer Roles: Task forces will need volunteers willing to learn what rights employers have and what strategies they can use to have conversations with employers. They may find it useful to form alliances with business groups, where they can recruit volunteers from among business, farming, or manufacturing leaders who would be willing to talk to their peers in similar positions.

Additional Information

WISDOM

2821 Vel Phillips Ave Suite 115
Milwaukee WI 53212