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Netroots Nation 2012: Immigration Highlights

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Matt, Van, Adam and I were just in Providence, Rhode Island where we attended Netroots Nation 2012, the year’s biggest conference of online progressive activists. Netroots Nation was also where America’s Voice Education Fund and Latino Decisions unveiled our new highly anticipated interactive Latino voter map, much to the glee of those who attended our panel: “Latino Vote Matters: Immigration, Power, and an Interactive Look at the Map.”

From the press release we released that morning:

Latino voter behavior is one of the key variables in the 2012 election cycle, with both political parties navigating real challenges and opportunities in their effort to reach Latino voters.

The tool is an interactive version of the Latino electoral influence model these organizations released in April.  It uses current polling data and demographic information to illustrate how the Latino vote could impact the 2012 elections, and allows the user to make adjustments and view different scenarios.

While Adam Luna, our Political Director, was doing a great job of moderating that panel with awesome people including Doug Rivlin, Rep. Gutierrez’s Press Secretary; Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos; Justin Gross, Latino Decisions; and Gaby Pacheco of United We DREAM fame, I was preparing to moderate my first panel ever with another group of rock stars on HB 56, called “The Worst Immigration Law in the United States”.  Watch panelists William Anderson, Favianna Rodriguez, Jonathan Perez and Barni Qassim talk about the effects of anti-immigrant legislation here.

Earlier in the conference, Matt Hildreth did a stellar job of organizing other immigrant rights advocates around issues that are affecting immigrant communities during the Immigration Caucus, while Van Le very proudly showed off her contribution to this years conference: