At the Clinton Campaign, Immigration Comes Full Circle

Thu, January 24, 2008 - 5:11 PM

When Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli joined Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president last year, she had no idea she would be back where she started.

Clinton’s director of Hispanic communications emigrated from Mexico more than six years ago and went through the visa process at what was then an office of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Arlington, Va.

“We sat waiting in the waiting room watching ‘Lord of the Rings’ one and a half times waiting for my interview,” said Rodriguez-Ciampoli. She now goes to the same building to work 15-hour days to get Clinton’s campaign message to Spanish-speaking media outlets.

The office is the growing national headquarters for Clinton’s presidential campaign, but a lot of people still don’t realize that, despite the fact Clinton campaign signs dot the windows.

Nothing marks the building as an immigration office any longer, but many immigrants were coming here to start their immigration process, Rodriguez-Ciampoli said. So the campaign printed fliers in English and Spanish to guide immigrants to the right place.

--Neil H. Simon