The holiday season was in full swing in New York when AILA President-Elect Doug Stump and I “invaded” the city last week. No stealth maneuvers here, this was a planned, coordinated campaign – we were there to talk to the press.

Most of the reporters were people AILA Communications has been working with for a good long while. These journalists turn to AILA for expertise on immigration topics ranging from detainers to waivers, from DACA to H-1Bs. So, while juggling the schedule was a challenge, each reporter gave us a generous amount of time to share our views, to answer questions, and to see where we can be of most help in the future.

Did you ever wonder how we have been so successful at getting our members’ voices heard? Look no further than AILA’s crackerjack Communications Department! Kudos to Senior Director of Communications George Tzamaras and Manager of Communications Belle Woods not only for a successful tour, but for making it their mission that people turn to AILA as the reliable resource for immigration expertise.

The tour included meetings with The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, the New York Daily News, CNN, the Associated Press, and the New York Times. Discussions ranged widely but here are some of the topics we covered:

• At every meeting, Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) was the first topic that came up, and always led to a lively discussion about what did we think about the prospects for next year, and what did AILA think real reform might look like.

• We talked about what DACA means to our clients and their families and what we think we’ll see in terms of applications next year. We also highlighted how complicated a “simple” application can be, and how critical it is to have good legal advice in the process.

• We talked about the many ways our current immigration system is broken, and how the current mess is the inevitable result of multiple barriers to legal immigration that are literally written into the law or just part of the adjudications process, as well as illustrated how they affect businesses and families, alike.

• Producers and reporters wanted facts. And boy did we give them facts: facts about how difficult it is to navigate our current system; how unwieldy, unforgiving, and unfair the process can be; how much our nation needs its immigrant communities; and the high cost of letting politics instead of common sense dominate the discussion. And thanks, IPC, for making us look so smart!

• We talked about notario fraud and AILA’s efforts to educate the public about the danger these scammers pose to immigrant communities. We introduced them to resources on UPL, including AILA’s consumer protection website, http://stopnotariofraud.org (now in four languages).

• We also highlighted our Chapters’ and individual members’ extraordinary efforts to educate their communities about the risks and potential rewards of deferred action, the value of working with an immigration lawyer and how for many, getting good legal advice can mean the difference between a bright future and deportation.

While not a media meeting, another highlight of the trip was meeting with the Partnership for a New American Economy (out of Mayor Bloomberg’s Office), which was a great opportunity to talk potential partnerships/collaboration with AILA in the coming year. It was also a chance to learn from each other. For instance, PNAE has been involved in a micro loan program to help qualified DACA applicants borrow enough for government filing fees. The program has been in effect for a few months, and PNAE has promised to let us know how that progresses, as the $465 fee has been a roadblock for many young immigrants.

By the end of the second day of meetings, we felt like we’d definitely made an impact. While not everyone can get to NYC and blitz through meetings as we did, we want to emphasize that working with your local press outlets is something that AILA members around the country can and should do. Take a look at these notes, think about what the various outlets were most interested in, and pitch a story tailored to your local news outlet. Want some help crafting your message? Run a pitch by AILA Communications—George and Belle are more than happy to help.

So, let’s take a well-deserved break over the holidays and then come back in the New Year ready to take on the immense task of restructuring our nation’s broken immigration system.

Orchard Street Facade, Photograph by Keiko Niwa

Anyone who believes that the entrepreneurial spirit is bred in the business school or the boardroom should visit “Shop Life,” a new permanent exhibit that opened recently at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York. The Tenement Museum tells the story of the immigrant families that lived at 97 Orchard Street in Manhattan from 1863, when the apartment building was constructed, to the 1930′s. In that small window of time, in these tiny tenement rooms, the daily lives of early urban immigrants vividly unfolds. Now, at street level, a different story is told–the story of the businesses these tenement dwellers created when they came to the United States. As Morris Vogel, the Museum’s Director aptly put it recently during a special reception celebrating the new exhibit, the tenement apartments portray how new immigrants got by; Shop Life shows how they got ahead.

In one of two store-front areas the Museum has reconstructed the saloon that occupied the space from 1864 until 1886. The saloon was owned by John and Caroline Schneider, two German immigrants who sought to attract a growing German immigrant community that had formed an enclave in the Lower East Side. More than just a spot to find good German lager beer, the Schneiders’ saloon was the heart and soul of the community; a place for Sunday family gatherings, music-making, job and apartment-hunting and business transactions. It was a hub where Germans from various provinces gathered and felt connected to each other in a way that prefigured the eventual mid-century unification of Germany. But it was also a place where German immigrants began to develop connections to their newly adopted homeland, engaging in political discussions and preparing to enter American cultural and political life.

In the other street-level storefront, the Museum offers a delightfully 21st century interactive exploration of the other businesses that sprang up in the tenement –a kosher butcher shop, an auction house and a 1970′s underwear store. In this space there are also video interviews with today’s Lower East Side shopkeepers, linking past to present.

Schneider Kitchen, Photograph by Keiko Niwa

Shop Life opens at a particularly significant moment in our ongoing national dialogue about immigration reform. The exhibit is not simply about immigrant mom-and-pop businesses; it is representative of all immigrants who decide to rely on their own ingenuity, creativity and connections to make a life here–very often establishing a livelihood for others and a thriving community around their enterprises–whether it is a social community such as the one that grew up around the Schneiders’ saloon, or a commercial community such as the one that envelops an immigrant-founded business like Ebay. At a time when increasing numbers of legislators, policy makers and thought leaders are recognizing that the United States must find ways to open its doors more widely and affirmatively to foreign nationals with ideas and initiative, Shop Life is an important reminder that the immigrant entrepreneurial spirit is not something new, but is a vibrant part of the fabric of our immigrant heritage that has contributed substantially to our success as a nation.

Written by Eleanor Pelta, AILA Immediate Past President