Candidate for NYS Senate Jessica Ramos - the “proud daughter of immigrants”, and the former Director of Latino Media for the City of New York joins the Immigration MIC podcast! (Catch the full episode on iTunes, SoundCloud, and YouTube today!)

🔵 Jessica is Colombian-American, born and raised in Elmhurst, and grew up in Astoria, and is currently raising her family in the neighborhoods she grew up in, such as Jackson Heights.

🔴 Jessica’s work with immigrant communities began as a young girl, hosting a radio show teaching Spanish and history to young Colombian-Americans to help preserve their heritage.

⚫️ She tells us her parent’s immigration stories, and how her parents both faced challenges as undocumented immigrants at the time — which makes the current political moment very personal for her.

🔵 When she was younger, her father was arrested as part of a immigration workplace raid in New Jersey and held in a detention center — an experience that impacts her with news of family separations at the border.

🔴 “No matter how progressive city government is, if Albany doesn’t get it together, the city can only do so much” — on why she left city government to run for NYS State Senate. (Driver’s licenses, ICE raids, NYDREAMAct)

⚫️ Jessica is part of an important moment of nationwide progressive candidates running for office in the midterms — it’s a shared vision to taking on issues like the #MTA, the education crisis, immigrant and workers rights.

🔵 “He’s the only one that did it after Trump was inaugurated — so you’re complicit!” — she breaks down for us why it’s important to have new leadership in her district and in Albany, and her motivation to unseat her opponent.

🔴 Jessica leaves us with an INCREDIBLE message that you NEED to hear: an inspiring message on the importance of political engagement, running for office, and advocating for basic human rights.

This episode is followed by a fifteen minute Spanish segment! (begins at 39:00)

¡La candidata para el Senado de Nueva York, Jessica Ramos, se une a nosotros para un segmento de 15 minutos en español en el podcast Immigration MIC! Habla de su carrera, las historias de inmigración de sus padres y cómo los desafíos que enfrentaron inspiraron su trabajo, las razones que se lanzo para representar a las comunidades en las que creció, y la importancia de hacer un cambio al liderazgo en Albany para reflejar el comunidades a las que sirven (el episodio comienza a las 39:00) - disponible en iTunes, YouTube y SoundCloud: ¡haga clic en el enlace!