The Maryland Green Party (MGP) and Baltimore Green Party (BGP) are proud to announce CASA in Action’s endorsement of Ian Schlakman for Baltimore City Council District 12. CASA in Action is a 501(c)4 organization that engages in educational, legislative, and political activities in support of immigrants. This endorsement demonstrates the viability not only of the Schlakman campaign, but the growing viability of the Green Party as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican policies of mass deportation, mass incarceration, border walls, and destabilization of Latin American countries. It is the first time CASA in Action has endorsed a Green Party Candidate.

           According to CASA in Action leadership, Schlakman earned this endorsement “in the trenches of the Fight for 15 movement” and because of the role of immigrants and advocates in writing his progressive platform. Nationally, the Green Party calls for an end to the border militarization initiated by President Bill Clinton, continued by Pres. George W. Bush, and accelerated by Pres. Barack Obama, who has deported over 200,000 immigrants, more than any other president in United States history. The Maryland Green Party is in the vanguard of the call for a new way forward, as presented in a White Paper on Latin American Foreign Policy recently published by the Council on Hemispheric Relations. (The Slate includes Dr. Margaret Flowers for Senate, and Nnabu Eze (MD-3), Kamesha Clark (MD-4), Nancy Wallace (MD-5), George Gluck (MD-6), and Myles Hoenig (MD-7) for House of Representatives.) The White Paper identifies U.S. militarism and intervention as root causes of forced migration. The MGP is pushing for an end to the U.S. foreign and trade policies that force people from their homes and the immigration and policing policies that criminalize them when they arrive. Immigrants are welcome here!