Voz de Mando
LA-based group Voz de Mando will fight against anti-immigrant policies. Photo: Courtesy

Immigrant rights organizations within Texas and across the country are developing plans for the "Latino is Powerful" Concert & March in Austin, TX on September 2 to protest Texas’s anti-immigrant policies, including SB4 and recent attacks on Dreamers.

The two-time Latin Grammy nominated recording artists, Voz de Mando announced that they will join this effort, encouraging residents, musicians, and others to refuse to remain silent in the face of policies that seek to bully and terrorize Latinos.

Under the banner "Basta Texas," people seek to defend DACA, elevate the voices of immigrants and Latinos throughout the state, and stop the hateful and racist SB4, signed on May 7, 2017, by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. According to the campaing, SB4 is a law that is rooted in white supremacy, and those who support SB4 seek to gain political power by scapegoating immigrants and people color and fomenting hate against hispanic communities.

The March, happening on September is three days ahead of the deadline given to the federal government to end the renewal of DACA. If the program is renewed, the Attorney General from 10 states have threatened to sue the Trump administration.

Grupo Voz de Mando, issued the following statement: “We believe in unity, not division. We are pleased to join our voices with others in Texas who are coming together to demand the respect that our people deserve.”

Basta Texas is a joint campaign of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Jolt.

Jolt brings together Latinos and stands for the Hispanic community, families, and parents who worked hard to give their children everything they didn’t have. Executive Director of Jolt, Cristina Tzintzun, said that “Latinos are the future of Texas."

According to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, their vision is to live in a world of diverse communities where day laborers live with full rights and responsibilities in an environment of mutual respect, peace, harmony and justice.

NDLON improves the lives of day laborers in the United States, and works to unify and strengthen its member organizations to be more strategic and effective in their efforts to develop leadership, site mobilize, and organize day laborers in order to protect and expand their civil, labor and human rights.

“As we learned in Arizona in 2010, when a state policy seeks to make immigrants' lives miserable in order to bully them into leaving, a celebration of our culture and music can become tools of resistance," says Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of NDLON. "We are pleased to stand with Voz de Mando and other artists in sending a very simple message: 'We will not comply with the Texas governor’s hateful agenda'.”

“Artists are key to making visible the injustices that our communities face," says representatives from Basta Texas. "We all must gather the courage to fight back and speak out in defiance of unjust laws and legislation that targets immigrants and the Latino community."

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