illegal aliens ride Catholic buses to DC 'We are not leaving!'
Posted on Friday, March 10 @ 13:59:03 PST
Topic: illegal Border crossing immigrants
WASHINGTON -- Shouting, clapping and pleading, some 20,000 immigrants gathered Tuesday to protest federal efforts to turn into criminals those who come to America seeking freedom and opportunity.
Topics: Washington, DC, Rally, Catholics, Buses, illegal immigrants, aliens, laws, Congress, Senate, President
By PATRICIA V. RIVERA
The News Journal
3/8/2006
Among the protesters was 35-year-old Lucas Perez, a construction worker from Georgetown, who joined the crowd as it chanted in Spanish, "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos." Translation: "We're here and we're not going."
"We need everyone to understand we're part of this society," he said.
Perez traveled to the rally, held to protest federal legislation that threatens to detain and deport illegal immigrants, with at least 500 workers who filled five buses leaving from Georgetown. Sussex County's immigrants have grown so vocal about influencing federal legislation that a local employer, Perdue Farms Inc., decided to stop production at its Georgetown plant for the day so that its workers could attend the rally outside the Capitol.
Heron Ramirez, 30, the father of the two girls who had a sign saying they weren't terrorists, said he knew he had to attend Tuesday's rally as soon as heard the details of how H.B. 4437 would affect immigrants. "I took a day off from work because I feel it's important to stop this," Ramirez, of Georgetown, said. "We can't be treated like criminals."
Organized by the National Capital Immigration Coalition, the protest united groups that represented immigrants from all over the world. Participants
included the African Peoples Action Congress, Council of American-Islamic Relations of Maryland and Virginia, the South Asian-American Leaders of Tomorrow and the National Council of La Raza.
"We have never mobilized these many hardworking, tax-paying immigrants to the Capitol," said Jaime Contreras, a Washington labor leader and coalition organizer.
Speakers addressed the crowd in English and Spanish, and many participants waved flags from Latin American countries, despite requests from organizers that they display only the stars and stripes.
The event included a religious service that embraced eight faiths, focusing on the American tradition of hospitality to immigrants.
Artemio Masa, 35, of Alexandria, Va., held up a sign with an illustration of pilgrims stepping on dry land. "Your ancestors," the sign read. "Immigrants, too."
Senate bill considered friendlier
The gathering occurred as lawmakers struggle to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, with sometimes conflicting goals of tightening borders and offering hope to an estimated 11 million undo*****ented workers already working and raising families here.
The Senate Judiciary Committee started this week to debate the specifics of proposed legislation calling for enhanced enforcement along U.S. borders and creating legal avenues for residency.
Immigrant advocates consider that bill friendlier than the controversial House bill passed in December that calls for detaining and deporting illegal immigrants in the United States.
Many at the Washington rally spoke passionately against H.B. 4437, known as the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, which would also make it a crime for social service agencies, churches and individuals to assist illegal immigrants. Unlawful presence in the United States is a civil offense.
Children not even old enough to walk donned white shirts with bold black letters stating, "I am not a criminal."
Immigration reform, rally speakers insisted, should include legalization of undo*****ented residents.
President Bush has called for a program that would grant temporary worker status to illegal immigrants already here. The Senate is trying to address that as well as border security, but consensus has been elusive. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has said he hopes his panel will produce a bill by the end of March.
Speaking for themselves
The Rev. Cesar Gomez of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Georgetown said the immigrants from Sussex County, many of whom participated in a rally in Georgetown last month, wanted to make an even more personal statement on Tuesday. Parishioners from Catholic churches in Seaford and Georgetown paid for the buses through collections this weekend totaling more than $3,000.
"They feel it's important to make the trip and speak for themselves," he said.
Jack Martin, a researcher with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that lobbies to reduce immigration, said most of the bills under discussion ignore the impact of illegal immigration on U.S. workers.
The federation estimates that 1 million illegal immigrants enter the United States each year. Lawmakers need to take draconian steps such as H.B. 4437, Martin said, to stop even more people from crossing the borders without do*****entation.
"Any of the other proposals only encourage more illegal immigration," he said.
The number of undo*****ented immigrants already in the United States has grown to as many as 12 million, according to a report Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, and efforts so far to curb such immigration have not slowed it.
Instead, the report's author said, those efforts are having an unintended consequence: People who illegally enter the United States from Mexico are staying longer because it is harder to move back and forth across the border.
"The security has done more to keep people from going back to Mexico than it has to keep them from coming in," said Jeffrey Passel, a senior research associate at the center.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. Contact Patricia V. Rivera at 856-7373 or privera@delawareonline.com.
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