The Building Democracy Initiative counters organized racism, anti-immigrant activity, and other forms of bigotry through strategic research, community organizing, education and training around the globe.

Across the country, a united response to anti-immigrant activity is growing. From New York to Maine, from Georgia to North Carolina, from Minnesota to Kansas, from Arizona to California, anti-immigrant organizations are severely undermining the integration of immigrants, and seek to deny their basic civil and human rights.

We believe that nativism and xenophobia must be challenged head-on for immigrant integration to be successful.

As Iowa took national center-stage in the Presidential campaign, anti-immigration organizations clamored for the spotlight, launching controversial TV ads that blamed immigrants for unemployment.

But their hopes were dashed.

 The Center for New Community’s Coalition for a Welcoming Iowa had been organizing for two years to counter anti-immigrant activity in the caucuses, bringing together more than 2,000 immigrants and allies from civic, religious, ethnic, labor, and business groups from across the state.

With a united voice, Coalition leaders denounced the ads, which spurred their removal from one TV station whose manager labeled them “borderline racist.” The Coalition encouraged civic participation and voter education that led to support for a pro-immigrant “Welcoming Iowa” resolution in hundreds of caucuses.

The resounding victory by Iowans continues to reverberate around the country, with groups in Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, North Carolina, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Minnesota, working in partnership with the Center to eliminate this barrier to successful immigrant integration and to let anti-immigrant groups know that “hate has no home here.”

From border to border and coast to coast, the Center for New Community strengthens and supports immigrant integration through strategic research, training and technical assistance, and field organizing to counter threats to civil and human rights posed by anti-immigrant activity.