Groups launch immigration rights campaign

Immigrant rights advocates on Monday launched the Georgia arm of the national Reform Immigration for America campaign.

About 25 representatives from labor, faith, business and immigrant rights community groups attended the launch on the steps of the Capitol.

The Georgia effort is part of a national campaign to urge lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Similar local launches were scheduled in more than 30 other cities Monday. A three-day national campaign summit is set to start Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The effort is a project of the Tides Advocacy Fund. The campaign’s Web site criticizes U.S. immigration laws that result in what it calls “untargeted raids in workplaces and neighborhoods and rogue enforcement agents at all levels … without fixing the real problems with our immigration system.”

The launch comes a week before President Obama meets with congressional leaders to discuss immigration policy.