Fight for immigration reform

According to surveys, there is a basis of support in the country for comprehensive immigration reform. We know that for the Latino community, this support is overwhelming, since this system hits us close to home: personally, our families, neighbors, and friends. That is why we cannot leave it up to the politicians or wait for the Obama administration or Congress to do it all alone. We, as a community, have the power to push and participate in making this a reality.

We saw it in 2006, when mass marches halted the advance of restrictive reforms that would have done much more harm than the current system, and that clearly did not work for the country or for immigrants. Even so, in both 2006 and 2007, the opposition acted with greater force, was better organized, made calls to Congress until the telephone system crashed, and made its opinions known in many ways, even sending letters, shoes, and bricks for the border wall to congressional offices.

This time around the fight may be even harder. We are in the middle of the country’s worst recession since the Great Depression. While the Obama administration says it is committed and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that the entire issue must be addressed if we want it to work, we know the voices against legalization will be very loud.

Pro-reform activist groups seem better organized than last time, but they will also need a greater push. We, the common people, have to get involved, not only march, because sometimes that is not enough. We have to march with the telephone, on the Internet, in the way the U.S. political system works, to make our will felt by congresspersons and senators. We must tell them we demand reform and have paid for it with our work and our contributions to this country. What we cannot do is sit back and do nothing.

According to surveys, there is a basis of support in the country for comprehensive immigration reform. We know that for the Latino community, this support is overwhelming, since this system hits us close to home: personally, our families, neighbors, and friends. That is why we cannot leave it up to the politicians or wait for the Obama administration or Congress to do it all alone. We, as a community, have the power to push and participate in making this a reality.

We saw it in 2006, when mass marches halted the advance of restrictive reforms that would have done much more harm than the current system, and that clearly did not work for the country or for immigrants. Even so, in both 2006 and 2007, the opposition acted with greater force, was better organized, made calls to Congress until the telephone system crashed, and made its opinions known in many ways, even sending letters, shoes, and bricks for the border wall to congressional offices.

This time around the fight may be even harder. We are in the middle of the country’s worst recession since the Great Depression. While the Obama administration says it is committed and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that the entire issue must be addressed if we want it to work, we know the voices against legalization will be very loud.

Pro-reform activist groups seem better organized than last time, but they will also need a greater push. We, the common people, have to get involved, not only march, because sometimes that is not enough. We have to march with the telephone, on the Internet, in the way the U.S. political system works, to make our will felt by congresspersons and senators. We must tell them we demand reform and have paid for it with our work and our contributions to this country. What we cannot do is sit back and do nothing.

• volver arriba