Progress Illinois

As anyone reading our coverage knows, the immigration reform movement in Illinois has been on a roll this year.

Prior to the February 5 primary, immigrant groups raised $36,000 as part of an effort to challenge Blue Dog Rep. Bill Lipinski and support challenger Mark Pera.  The groups sent a strong message to Lipinski by running their own Latino/Muslim precinct operations and managing to beat him in several wards.

In a March special election, immigrant advocates capitalized on years of citizenship work and voter registration in the 14th Congressional District, where they put volunteers on the ground to help defeat Illinois' most prominent anti-immigrant leader, Jim Oberweis. 

In the presidential realm, Juan Salgado, president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), challenged John McCain at the National Council of La Raza’s convention over his flip-flopping on his support for comprehensive immigration reform.

Meanwhile, ICIRR and several other groups are deep into a $500,000 voter registration and mobilization drive in 20 Chicagoland communities.  The overall goal is 20,000 new registrations, and Progress Illinois learned this week that they've already signed up 13,746 new voters. 

The latest tool in the movement's arsenal is ImmigrationPAC, a new national fundraising group begun by Jose Cruz and a group of young Chicago Latino professionals, which will be holding a fundraiser in Chicago this Friday.

Cruz is the son of Humboldt Park Pastor Ruben Cruz and a former Clinton White House staffer. The political group has the backing of Latino elected official and immigration heavyweights like Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Cook County Democratic Party Chair Joe Berrios, and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Rights Political Director Artemio Arreola.  

ImmigrationPAC plans to support candidates across the country who clearly support a path to citizenship for the undocumented and are vying against opponents who support a “deportation only” solution. Likely Democratic recipients in Illinois include 10th District challenger Dan Seals, 14th District Rep. Bill Foster, and 6th District challenger Jill Morgenthaler.