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Pramila Jayapal reels off impressive figures when discussing the voter registration drive conducted by her organisation, OneAmerica With Justice For All, but she stresses that getting new immigrants registered as voters is just one of many important steps in community-building and empowerment.
Since 2006, One America has registered over 23,000 new citizens as voters in Washington State. "We're bringing many new citizens into the political process, strengthening the immigrant voice and ensuring a strong democracy," she says.
The immigrants come from over 50 countries and include Indians, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans and South Americans. The organisation, formerly known as Hate Free Zone, uses volunteers familiar with over a dozen languages including Punjabi and Vietnamese to impress on immigrants, especially the older ones, the need to be registered and turn up to vote on election day.
It was in 2006 that immigrant groups across the nation conducted unprecedented voter education and mobilisation campaigns, she points out, adding that this led to the formation of a new kind of immigrant voting block.
"We have the beginnings of an immigrant electoral machine that will continue to build and flex its muscle in 2008 and beyond. In 2007 alone, we registered over 12,000 new voters and 6,000 households, and distributed 20,000 pieces of mail to mobilise and educate our new voters," Jayapal said. "We also hold candidate forums in five languages and do massive door-to-door outreach."
This year, OneAmerica has registered over 10,000 new citizens against a target of 18,000 before the November elections. Come November, her organisation hopes to bring a total of 40,000 new immigrant voters into polling stations in the state.
The success of OneAmerica has helped the organisation grow dramatically. From a volunteer-driven campaign, it now has a full-time staff of 15, with a 2008 budget of $1.7 million.
Jayapal, a former banker who was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is the author of the acclaimed book Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland. She left the financial world 15 years ago, and committed herself to fighting for South Asian women's empowerment through the Seattle organisation Chaya, before expanding her activities into the group of new immigrants.
She suggests that when an immigrant votes for the first time, he or she becomes energised, and the social consciousness grows. OneAmerica does not work for any political party but is, she says, focussed on bringing diverse communities together to fight for shared values.
The group has been getting considerable press in the state, and Jayapal finds herself often in the news, either for her voter drives or for her recent study that found illegal immigrants held in detention centers are ill-treated.
In February, Washington's Christine Gregoire became the third Governor in America to establish a council to integrate immigrants into the state's fabric -- and, says Jayapal, it was the voter registration drive and other activities by pro-immigrant organisations such as hers that nudged Gregoire into doing this.
"She did this because she knows that immigrants and non-immigrants share dreams and values and that we need to ensure that all of us have access to those things that allow us to contribute our full selves," says Jayapal, pointing out that voter registration drives help inspire immigrants to fight for such issues as healthcare, education, a clean environment, civil and human rights.
"We're building a movement that crosses ethnicity, race and even issues," says Jayapal, who started organising South Asian groups in the Seattle area over a decade ago. "Immigrant voters care about health care and want to make sure that we protect those rights and civil liberties. All of us want good jobs and education. Our voters know and believe, truly believe, that we can build a movement and a nation that lifts up everyone. And that's actually why we've just changed our name from Hate Free Zone to One America With Justice For All."
The original Hate Free Zone had been created in direct response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Saturday after the attacks, she had heard from a teacher she knew in south Seattle that yet another Muslim family was pulling its children from school.
"I thought this was crazy," she says. "I got an appointment with [United States Representative] Jim McDermott that Monday. He said 'I think we should do something. But what?' Why not hold a press conference with the governor and the mayor and declare Washington a hate-free state?' I suggested. He said, 'When?' 'Tomorrow', I told him."