Maria Sotomayor, the civic engagement coordinator for the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC), will speak to Criminal Justice majors at Neumann University on Wednesday, October 12, at 1:50 p.m. in Bachmann 134. Maria is a member of Neumann’s class of 2013.

She will describe her experience as an undocumented immigrant and discuss PICC’s mission – to advance immigrants’ rights and promote immigrants’ full integration into society by advocating with a unified voice for greater public understanding and welcoming public policies throughout Pennsylvania.  

She was invited by Professor Joseph Gosseaux, a former FBI agent, whose senior seminar class is reading Undocumented, the story of Dan-el Padilla Peralta, an undocumented Dominican immigrant who made the journey from a New York City homeless shelter to the top of his class at Princeton University.

Maria was born in Ecuador and raised in Pennsylvania. She is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient. Coming from a mixed-status family and community impacted by the current immigration system, Maria’s goal is to educate and support immigrant communities to use their voice and power to change the system.

The PICC is a diverse coalition of more than 50 member organizations and hundreds of individual.  The membership includes community groups, mutual assistance associations, nonprofit social and legal service providers, advocacy organizations, labor unions, faith communities, and community leaders.