LatinaLista — Advocates for immigration reform have steadily expanded beyond the friends, families and clergy of the undocumented who lead those impressive mass marches of 2006 demanding Washington fix a broken immigration system. Nowadays, business owners, in all sectors, have joined in demanding that Congress act sooner rather than later to address immigration reform.
Of all the business sectors, it’s those in the technology sector who have suddenly begun to exercise their civic conscience and speak out for immigration reform. Not because they want to see families reunited or the unskilled, uneducated undocumented get on a path to citizenship, but because they want those who are educated and visionaries in innovation and technology be allowed to stay in the U.S. once they have their degrees to help sustain and grow the nation’s tech sector.
Every 100 immigrants who earn advanced degrees in the US and then stay to work in technical fields create 262 jobs for American workers.
Regardless of their reasons, the tech industry’s advocacy brings a new influential voice and another dimension to the debate — such as a change to how protest marches have traditionally been done.
Tech business leaders, like other immigration reform activists before them, are planning an immigration march on Washington. Only this time, it’s being done in high-tech fashion.
Dubbed the March for Innovation, organizers are bringing together grassroots activists, tech business leaders and whoever else wants to join what’s being billed as one of the largest-ever virtual marches on Washington.
Slated for sometime this Spring, organizers “plan to generate a surge of contacts to Congress — on Twitter, Facebook, on the phone, and in meetings in Washington.”
The organizers of the virtual march are working with the Partnership for a New American Economy and include such people as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Tumblr founder David Karp, OnSwipe founder Andres Barreto, among other notable names in the tech industry.
Sign-up for the march is happening now on their website.
It’s simple: the more innovators, entrepreneurs, and hard working individuals we have in America, the better our economy performs and the more jobs we create for all Americans. We’re bridging party lines to streamline, modernize, and rationalize our broken immigration system.
