This is Our Home: Voices from the Immigrant Rights Movement

Quinebaug Valley Community College will host Voices from the Immigrant Rights Movement, A Discussion Featuring Vania Galicia, Sister Mary Jude Lazarus and Erin O-Neil Baker.

The panel will include:

  • Vania Galicia-Bacilio is a twenty-year-old undocumented immigrant who has lived in Willimantic Connecticut since she was three years old. She first began organizing when she was sixteen years old through a local organization called GROW Windham, which inspired her to become more involved in the immigrants’ rights movement. Since, she has been involved in the movement through several local organizations such as, Connecticut Students for a Dream, The Windham Immigrant’s Rights Coalition, Freedom at Eastern, and The Neighbor Fund. She is now attending Eastern Connecticut State University and working towards earning her English bachelor’s degree, and plans to use her degree to attend Law school in order to become an immigration lawyer.
  • Sister Mary Jude Lazarus is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church.  She feels privileged to have been able to serve in ministry to Hispanics in Eastern Connecticut since 1985, primarily in the Willimantic area.
  • Erin O’Neil-Baker is the founder and a partner of Hartford Legal Group, LLC, a law firm in Hartford, Connecticut, established in 2005, which focuses primarily on representing individuals with their immigration and naturalization needs. She has represented clients in Immigration Court proceedings, USCIS adjudications, U.S. District Court actions, Fifth and Second Circuit Appeals petitions, and Board of Immigration Appeals proceedings. She has challenged the deportation of high-profile clients and has been an invited speaker, clinic organizer, and participant for immigrant rights and community groups such as the Women and Girl Foundation, Unidad Latina, CT For Dreamers, CT ACLU, Middlesex Immigrant Rights Alliance, Wethersfield Women for Progress, as well as many churches and public schools.

For more information please contact Jonathan Andersen, professor of English at jandersen@qvcc.edu (phone: 860-932-4054). The QVCC Cultural Programming Committee sponsors this event.