Omar A. Henriquez
Revson Fellow 2005-2006
Immigration Campaign Coordinator, Eastern Region
Service Employee International Union (SEIU)
Omar Henriquez has been involved in the struggle for immigrants’ rights in various forms for the last twenty-five years. He presently sits on the Board of Directors of The Workplace Project, Resist, and CASA, the Coordinating Agency for Spanish American of Nassau County. Most recently he served as the Eastern Region Immigration Campaign Coordinator for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). His efforts as coordinator were concentrated in local and national campaigns to achieve immigration reform towards legalization of all hard-working, tax-paying, undocumented workers in the United States. Before joining SEIU, Mr. Henriquez was the Youth and Immigrant Project Coordinator for NYCOSH, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. While there, he was instrumental in bringing to light the plight of undocumented immigrant workers cleaning up the toxic debris at ground zero after the terrorist attack on the WTC. This resulted in procuring a medical van to provide testing for the workers and in increasing their wages. He traces his involvement in immigrant labor issues to the Workplace Project, an immigrant workers’ organization in Hempstead, N.Y., where he worked as the Project’s first organizer. Mr. Henriquez was born in El Salvador and immigrated to the United States in1972. During his Revson year, he plans to take courses in political science, human rights, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, and humanities.
(The Revson Fellow’s biography that appears above was last updated in 2005. Revson Fellows may update their biographies on this site by sending email to: revson@columbia.edu)
My effectiveness in my current position owes a great deal to my experience as a Revson Fellow. First, of course, was the superb academic instruction I received. But equally important is the way I learned to truly appreciate the full range of other people’s perspectives and insights. As a Fellow, I was presented with such a diversity of opinions on issues that bore directly or indirectly on my work that I gained enormous skills in working with people of different viewpoints. I continue to see Revson Fellows regularly and rely on the informal Revson network when I need new information or insights.
