Love Thy Neighbor! Tomorrow, KFTC members are joining KDVA and allies in Frankfort to talk to state legislators about the laws that affect the rights of immigrants and refugees, and a vision for Kentucky that includes the important contributions immigrants and refugees.

Come be a part of the conversation, and support the rights of immigrant and refugee communities. Below is an infographic from the Immigration Policy Center that includes some facts about the role that immigrants play in Kentucky.

You can find more information on KFTC's calendar, including the plan for the day and the link to register.

If you can't come to Frankfort tomorrow, you can still support the Advocacy Day by calling your legislator in the morning.

Call the Legislative Message Line at 800-372-7181 and ask to speak with your legislator. Tell them, "I stand with my friends at the Immigrants' and Refugees' Lobby Day.  Today, please listen, and learn about how our Commonwealth is stronger when we welcome immigrants into our communities."

Here's the video of last night's Colbert Report visit by our friend Scott Douglas of Greater Birmingham Ministries speaking out against anti-immigrant legislation. 

WMMT, Whitesburg's Mountain Community Radio Station in Letcher County, offers ordinary citizens training and access to the tools they need to cover news that is important to them through the Community Correspondents Corps.   Recently, Letcher County member Elizabeth Sanders teamed up with the Corps to report on Kentucky's Senate Bill 6.   

The piece she created includes several interviews with KFTC members and rally attendees at the recent Immigration rally in Frankfort, as well as clips from the SB 6 hearing.  Her great piece aired on WMMT's most recent Mountains News and World Report and can be heard at WMMT's website here.  Its well worth checking out and sharing! And keep checking out the Corps website for more great citizen news coverage! 

KET just got a video online from last week's SB 6 Immigration hearing from February 9th's House Local Government Committee that we reported on last week. 

Just a little before the 32 minute mark, the SB 6 hearing starts, with a lot of good testimony from Marilyn Daniel, volunteer attorney and founder of Maxwell Street Legal Clinic, Marian McClure Taylor, the executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, Hopkinsville Police Chief Guy Howie and Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs Association, all in opposition to SB 6.

At about 58:40, Douglas Roy, president of Kentuckians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement (KFIRE) gives his testimony against the bill, which Rep Jim Wayne later (82:40) suggests was venomous.  This results in Senator John Schickel, the sponsor of the bill seemingly overreacting and becoming very angry.  

Our friends in the immigrant community came to show solidarity with Kentucky Rising by sharing twenty Mexican dinners with the folks in the Governor's office today.

They collaborated with others who wanted to show support, hosting a gathering on the Capitol steps.  Below is a photo of Freddy Peralta, of the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (KCIRR), affirming, "We have been fighting together for a long time. This is about building a better United States."

Thank you, KCIRR!

Senate Bill 6, the anti-immigrant, Arizona copycat bill sponsored by Sen. John Schickel and Sen. Brandon Smith received the second of two hearings Wednesday in the House Local Government Committee. The committee didn't vote on the bill but heard about an hour of testimony that ranged from insightful and educational to irrelevant and offensive.

KFTC members from central and northern Kentucky, as well as allies from groups like the ACLU and faith communities, attended the packed hearing. An overflow room was also nearly full.

Below is a list of the testimony offered in opposition to SB 6:

• Marilyn Daniel, volunteer attorney and founder of Maxwell Street Legal Clinic in Lexington, a pro bono and low-cost legal clinic that's been serving families with immigration issues for about 12 years. Highlights of Daniel's testimony include an overview of the complexities of our current immigration system that would make enforcing SB 6 nearly impossible, a breakdown of how the bill would impact Kentucky families (especially families that are of mixed legal status, and would surely be torn apart by SB 6), and how the bill goes beyond enforcing current federal law by creating five new categories of crime.

• Marian McClure Taylor, the executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches. Taylor focused on Kentucky churches' concern for the "quality of fabric of our communities." She pointed out the faith communities' obligation to serve all communities, and how SB 6 would criminalize that obligation.
• Hopkinsville Police Chief Guy Howie and Jerry Wagner, executive director of the
  Kentucky Sheriffs Association. Both testified to the enormous strain that SB 6 would put on their workload.

Testifying in support of SB 6 was the bill's sponsor, Sen. Schickel, who testified that the bill was intended to enforce federal law – a point that Rep. Jim Wayne and Marilyn Daniels both refuted by pointing out that in fact the bill creates five new crimes. 

Also testifying in support of SB 6 was Douglas Roy, president of Kentuckians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement (KFIRE).  Part of Roy's testimony was from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which is listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate group watch list. 

Here's a snippet of his speech, published on KFIRE's website: "Some have been hit by unlicensed and uninsured drivers; some exposed to heretofore eradicated diseases; some whose lives have been upended by aliens who have stolen their social security number. Identity theft is an epidemic and forty million social security cards have been compromised! Then there are the children and adults whose lives, sadly, have been dramatically devastated: molested, raped, robbed, or murdered by violent alien criminals."

Committee Chair Rep. Steve Riggs interrupted Roy and said testimony should focus on the bill. Rep. Jim Wayne said Roy’s testimony contained “venom” and was “self-righteous.”

KFTC members were relieved that the bill did not go further than this committee today, but will continue to learn about and act on immigration issues.  As Homer White, a Scott County KFTC member put it, "We all share a common future."

Folks from Eastern Kentucky made the nearly 4-hour trip in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday to join the coalition of organizations rallying to stop Senate Bill 6 at the Capitol.  This bill is bad for the whole state, but particularly of interest to Eastern Kentucky members, as State Senator of District 30 (Bell, Harlan, Perry, and Leslie counties), Brandon Smith, is co-sponsor of SB 6.  

In order to bring this issue to Smith’s constituents, KFTC members teamed up with WMMT’s Community Correspondence Corps (CCC).  Equipped with CCC tools and training, several interviews were recorded at the rally, as well as audio of the crowd singing and chanting against SB 6.  Over the next few days, members will work with CCC to create a radio piece on the bill and resistance around it to be aired on WMMT’s Mountain News and World Report next week.  Check out WMMT and CCC’s websites to catch the story coming soon! 

Today, as many as 500 people from across the state gathered in Frankfort for our big Immigrants' Rights / Anti-Senate Bill 6 Lobby Day and Rally in Frankfort.

Many KFTC members participated, but many, many more ally organizations, immigrants from across the state, and others came out to be a big part of the day.  

Collectively, we had a strong presence in Frankfort and many good conversations with legislators in the House to encourage them to oppose SB 6.

There will be more reporting on this in the coming days, but here are a few of the first pictures of the day.

Also note that SB 6 is having a second committee hearing and a vote tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon in the Capitol Annex.  Come out if you can.

The central Kentucky chapter hosted a lobby training last Saturday at Maxwell Street Presbyterian church in Lexington. Almost 30 people came out to learn about our various lobby priorities in 2011.

 The goals for the training were to 1. familiarize folks with lobbying and lobby related activities and 2. to teach people about our six lobby priorities for this session. We began the training with what for some folks may have been a refresher - how a bill becomes a law and what is the difference between paid lobbyists and ourselves. The discussion was very lively and folks contributed several stories about their own experiences lobbying in Frankfort.

We talked about KFTC's lobby priorities in 2011 and then folks broke out into small groups to learn the specifics about immigrant's rights, clean energy, protecting Kentucky's rivers and streams, tax reform, voting rights and LGBTIQ fairness.

 Finally, folks signed up to come along w/ KFTC to several big lobby days. If you're interested in joining us for any of these you can either show up for the carpools which normally leave from the Versailles Rd. Save-A-Lot at 8:15am, or get in touch with Ondine at ondine@kftc.org

Thursday Feb 3rd - Economic Justice Lobby day

Tuesday Feb 8th - Immigrant's Rights

Thursday Feb. 10th - Clean Energy

Monday Feb 14th - I love mountains day

Wednesday Feb 23rd - Fairness

Thursday Feb 24th - Voting Rights