Press release from Indivisible Asheville:
ASHEVILLE, NC (July 28, 2017) — Indivisible Asheville/WNC is hosting an educational symposium on the immigrant justice movement on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, at Lord Auditorium in Pack Memorial Library, located at 67 Haywood Street in Asheville, featuring legal expert and human rights advocate Azadeh Shahshahani from the Atlanta-based nonprofit Project South. Shahshahani will give an overview of immigration policy in the United States and will highlight the issues that immigrant communities are facing today here in Western North Carolina and across the South.
Recent changes in immigration policies and community responses to immigrants in our midst make this topic a critically important one for Western North Carolina. As Shahshahani states, “In light of the heightened state repression against immigrant and Muslim communities, it is incumbent on all of us to stand actively in solidarity with our neighbors and provide the support they need.”
Shahshahani serves as Legal & Advocacy Director for Project South, an organization focused on building leadership within communities to challenge racism and economic injustice. With over 10 years of experience in anti-Islamophobia work and defense of human rights in the immigrant justice movement, Shahshahani has launched new programming at Project South based in local, regional, and global initiatives. Her work in the Southeast has focused on protecting the human rights of immigrants and of Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities.
Also speaking will be community organizer Alan Ramirez from the local nonprofit CIMA (Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Accion), an organization that supports families caught up in the criminalization and deportation system. Ramirez’s work in Western North Carolina focuses on providing “Know Your Rights” workshops that invite folks into the movement.
A question-and-answer period with open discussion will follow the presentations by Shahshahani and Ramirez. Spanish translators will be available. The event is free and open to the public.
Indivisible Asheville/WNC is a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting democracy through informed community action in Western North Carolina. To learn more, visit IndivisibleAVL.org, follow @IndivisibeAVL on Facebook and Twitter, or email info@indivisibleavl.org.For more information on Project South, visit their website at ProjectSouth.org. For more on CIMA, visit CIMAwnc.org.
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