{"id":13158,"date":"2026-02-11T17:42:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=13158"},"modified":"2026-02-11T17:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:42:19","slug":"akron-ohio-is-home-digital-billboard-sends-message-of-welcome-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/akron-ohio-is-home-digital-billboard-sends-message-of-welcome-and-love\/","title":{"rendered":"AKRON: \u201cOhio Is Home\u201d Digital Billboard Sends Message of Welcome and Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance<\/em><\/p>\n

February 4, 2026: \u201cOhio Is Home for All\u201d reads a new, robin’s egg blue digital billboard in Akron, featuring faces of people of all races, ages, and ethnicities. According to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and Elizabeth Zaleski, the billboard\u2019s sponsor, all people who choose to make Ohio their home, raise their families and build good lives here, are welcome in the Buckeye State.<\/p>\n

\u201cOurs is a message of welcome and inclusion,\u201d said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. \u201cImmigrants are part of Ohio\u2019s past, present, and future. The current federal government may see it differently, but most of them don\u2019t live in Ohio. They don\u2019t represent the opinion of millions of people here. We don\u2019t need politicians who teach us to hate our neighbors. We need politicians who understand that every contribution matters and we are all part of one community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Zaleski is a book editor who lives in Akron. Concerned about current anti-immigrant policies, she reached out to OIA to partner on this billboard, which will be up through the month of February.<\/p>\n

Zaleski said, \u201cWe know that immigration is part of who we are as U.S. Americans, and that immigrants have long made vital contributions to our communities while navigating a needlessly convoluted bureaucracy. Today, our immigrant neighbors continue to do this while also suffering shameless scapegoating, racial profiling, and wanton cruelty. There is no shortage of terrible news right now, and it often reaches us through hyper-individualized platforms. Thus, I wanted to create something public and positive. Ohio must continue to be a home for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tramonte will participate in a panel discussion on \u201cICE, Justice & Ohio Communities\u201d at the Akron Public Library (Main Branch) on February 18, from 6-7:30pm, with other experts. The event is hosted by Indivisible Akron (RSVP here).<\/p>\n

Tramonte added, \u201cIt\u2019s Congress\u2019 job to pass immigration laws, and immigrants are trying hard to follow the law. But the law also needs to work, logically. Arresting and deporting people who have lived here for decades is the wrong approach. Canceling legal status programs so that more people can be deported \u2014 like Haitian-Ohioans who have already survived so much \u2014 doesn\u2019t make sense, either. People who are working legally and paying taxes should be able to keep doing so; they shouldn\u2019t suddenly have to fear separation from their homes and families. We need immigration reform in Congress, and we need a federal government that respects everyone\u2019s contributions, roles, and rights. Our billboard speaks for the Ohioans who welcome immigrants and are glad they\u2019ve made Ohio their home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cOhio Is Home\u201d digital billboard is located on US 224 East, about 700 feet from Hilbish Avenue, facing west. It will be up for the month of February, and is expected to garner at least 176,000 impressions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance February 4, 2026: \u201cOhio Is Home for All\u201d reads a new, robin’s egg blue digital billboard in Akron, featuring faces of people of all races, ages, and ethnicities. According to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and Elizabeth Zaleski, the billboard\u2019s sponsor, all people who choose to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[298],"class_list":["post-13158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",700,467,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",700,467,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",700,467,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",700,467,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance.jpg",700,467,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-700x462.jpg",700,462,true],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-500x467.jpg",500,467,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ohio-imm-alliance-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance February 4, 2026: \u201cOhio Is Home for All\u201d reads a new, robin’s egg blue digital billboard in Akron, featuring faces of people of all races, ages, and ethnicities. According to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and Elizabeth Zaleski, the billboard\u2019s sponsor, all people who choose to","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13160,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13158\/revisions\/13160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13158"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=13158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}