The Worst Immigration Law in the United States
Session Type(s): Panel
Training Tag(s): Immigration
Starts: Saturday, Jun. 9 3:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Jun. 9 4:15 PM (Eastern)
Moderator
Mahwish Khan
Mahwish Khan is Manager of New Media and Online Content at America’s Voice, a nonprofit in Washington, DC, that advocates for immigration reform. Mahwish has MA degrees in both Public Communications and Journalism. She is a published writer who has also designed publications both in the US and in her native country of Pakistan, where she also dabbled in filmmaking, Web design, advertising, and photography. While pursuing her Communications degrees here and abroad, she worked in the Publications Department of a prestigious Washington, DC think tank, as well as in an International NGO safeguarding the rights of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan. She also worked in the Communications and E-Outreach Department of a small nonprofit working to empower women in developing countries — an experience that fostered her fascination with social media and online communications.
Panelists
William Anderson
William C. Anderson was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the 2nd son of a minister and the youngest of his siblings. He graduated this May 2012 with honors and a bachelors in Social Work from UAB. He has over 5 years experience in social justice, community organizing, & non-profit work at the age of 22. William grew up with a strong working class conscious upbringing and special regard to people of color. The majority of his community organizing as of late has surrounded immigration & labor. He wants to make a difference in his time on this earth. That difference, being systemic transformation that empowers the marginalized.
Jonathan Perez
Jonathan Perez is a queer undocumented political exile from Colombia, and a Co-Founder of the Immigrant Youth Coalition in Southern California. He began his activism in the 10th grade while attending one of the most overcrowded high schools in the nation. Perez organized successfully to stop punitive discipline policies and successfully led a campaign to build 3 new schools in his community in Los Angeles. He soon realized that he could no longer remain in the shadows. The youth who looked up to him, many of whom who were also undocumented, pushed him into immigrants’ rights work. His journey has taken him from civil disobedience to being locked up in an immigration detention center.
Favianna Rodriguez
Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural organizer, and political activist based in Oakland, California. Her art and collaborative projects address migration, global politics, economic equality, gender justice, and ecology. Favianna lectures globally on the power of art, cultural organizing and technology to inspire social change, and leads art workshops at schools around the country. Rodriguez partners with social movement groups around the world to create art that’s visionary and transformational. She is the Executive Director of CultureStrike, a national arts organization that engages artists, writers and performers in migrant rights. She was recently featured in a documentary series titled Migration is Beautiful which addressed how artists responded to failed immigrant policy in the United States. In 2009, she co-founded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latino communities.
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