Immigrants Rally For Reform
Brent Finnegan -- March 22nd, 2010
Although healthcare reform is dominating the lion’s share of headlines out of Capitol Hill, there was a large immigration reform rally on the mall in DC Sunday.
Approximately 150 local Latino immigrants gathered on Wolfe Street Sunday morning, and loaded into buses chartered by Reform Immigration for America, to take the demonstrators to the March for America.
The group from Harrisonburg joined tens (or hundreds) of thousands of others from across the country in Washington DC.
I spoke with participants Josh Diamond and Ana Jimenez as the buses were boarding.
Among other goals, the immigrants are rallying to hold Obama to account for his campaign promises to deliver “comprehensive immigration reform.”
Obama benefited in 2008 from a huge turnout of Hispanics, drawn by his promise to deliver immigration reform allowing millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
But that has been slowed by Obama’s yearlong push for healthcare reform, efforts to revive the slumping economy and resistance in Congress after an immigration overhaul was torpedoed in 2007 under Republican President George W. Bush. (Washington Post)
Photo via Flickr, by mar is sea Y.
Tags: demonstration, Immigration, rally, undocumented
I wish I had known about this bus trip. I considered going to DC, but didn’t want to go by myself.
If I had gone, I would have brought signs saying “Legalize the American dream” and “Proud Descendant of Undocumented Immigrants” (my first ancestors came from England, France, and what is now the Netherlands in the 1600′s, another branch of Scots-Irish immigrants came in the early 1800′s – all without documents).
I like many parts of the blueprint for comprehensive reform that Senators Schumer and Graham put together, but I still would like there to be a legal path for average Central American families who do not qualify for ANY of the current visa categories leading to permanent residence and eventually the possibility of citizenship. When average people from any given country have no chance of legally immigrating to the US, we do damage to our American brand and we aren’t living up to our values.
Thanks for covering this topic. There are a lot of immigrants in our area, so it’s nice to have the event covered from a local perspective.
Just a reminder that immigrant does not equal hispanic.