Teaching Chicago Style Politics

In Spring of 2008 ICIRR approached its sister coalitions, national partners, and the Four Freedoms Fund with an idea - to create the first national "New Americans Democracy Boot Camp". The Goal of the boot camp was to create high quality civic engagement training for young immigrants and children of immigrants to better organize these often hard to reach communities and build leadership in the next generation of community organizers.

The “New Americans Democracy Boot Camp” was kicked off on June 28, 2008 with a “New Americans Democracy Day” celebration. This included a naturalization workshop and a non‐partisan celebration of immigrant civic participation attended by 500 Illinois leaders, the 63 participants in the Boot Camp, senior Illinois Senator and Majority Whip Dick Durbin, and Illinois Congressman and Deputy Majority Whip Jan Schakowsky, as well as such national leaders of the immigrant rights movement as Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum; Frank Sharry of America’s Voice; and Simon Rosenberg of NDN.

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Illinois Immigrant Political Almanac

As immigrants settle in our state, become citizens, and register to vote, we are also playing an increasingly key role in our state’s electorate. This report documents the growth of Illinois immigrant voters, not just in size but also in our share of the total electorate. It also demonstrates how immigrant voters are settling in key areas of the state where they could swing elections and thus determine the balance of power on the state and federal level.

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Illinois Immigrant Action

In an effort to do more targeted advocacy work, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) created a new 501c4 organization called Illinois Immigrant Action (IIA) in June of 2008.

The program targeted 31,000 recent immigrants living in 24,124 households. These individuals were spread over 1,671 precincts in Illinois’ 10th and 11th Congressional Districts. These households included voters who were either Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or Asian.

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How Illinois Immigrants Voted

TIn Illinois, new Americans make up 10 percent of all registered voters. Yet little is known about the issues driving these voters to the polls – that is until now. The Immigrant Election Central project was a partnership of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Univision Radio News, with the expertise of the Asian American Institute, the Chicago Public Schools Service Learning Program, the Mikva Challenge, and the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. The partnership was possible with the funding from the McCormick Foundation.

The Immigrant Election Central project recruited 65 high school students to spend all of Election Day conducting the exit poll. They were stationed throughout the city and suburbs in 30 sites with large immigrant communities, including Latinos, Koreans, South Asians, Chinese, and Arabs. The Exit Poll was composed of 20 questions, and was conducted in English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and Hindi.

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ICIRR Goes Geek

Mastering Technology, Data Evaluation, Lists, and Exit Polling
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