Joan Suarez-a veteran labor activist and advocate for immigrants’ rights-spoke at Saint Louis University on Wednesday, March 28. Sponsored by the Theology Club and the Muslim Students’ Association as part of its annual Social Justice Month, the lecture focused on the political situation of immigration in the state of Missouri.

Suarez discussed the causes of immigration, which she partially attributes to NAFTA and other U.S. trade policies. She said she believes that economic conditions force Mexicans and Central Americans to immigrate to the United States so as to escape crushing poverty at home.

Suarez later explored immigration-related legislation currently being considered by the Missouri General Assembly. She mentioned a resolution to declare English as Missouri’s official language and a bill that would ban most undocumented immigrants from attending state colleges and universities.

At the end of her talk, Suarez urged attendees to call their congressmen in support of the STRIVE Act, a bill recently proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would provide an opportunity for legal residency to America’s undocumented immigrants.

“The time to practice democratic politics is now . Folks should be calling their representatives and saying that we expect comprehensive immigration reform,” Suarez said.

Romaytha Adbullah, a member of MSA who helped plan the event, said that the lecture’s topic was in line with the goals of Social Justice Month.

“Immigration is a local social justice issue, but it also affects people all around the world,” Abdullah said.

MSA Social Justice Month continues this Monday at 5 p.m. with a talk on the conflict in Darfur, to take place in Baer-Fuller Hall.

On Monday, April 9, two SLU professors will hold a dialogue on Sunni-Shiite relations. The discussion begins at 4 p.m. in Carlo Auditorium in Tegeler Hall.