A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to attend a state of Ill. simulation of the state government with my school and I won an award for best lobbyist. The funny thing is that I went to the simulation as a journalist but had a piece of original legislation HBOL 2112 that deals with providing a birth certificate for anyone born in the state of Ill. regardless of the parents’ immigration status.The controversy arises because it is not a law to issue a birth certificate and I had to convince hundreds of other students in a day to vote for my bill. It took a lot of work but I did it, some days I did not sleep until 3 or 4 a.m. My advice for anyone trying to get their point across to as many people as possible is to be short and to the point. Most people do
not care about your concerns; your job is to make them care. One of the arguments against my bill was “don’t birth certificates get issued already?” I had to find evidence to the contrary and I went online to county clerks office in Cook County which serves the Chicago area and a couple of other counties. I found my evidence being that counties only issued a birth certificate to people with a state issued id which is impossible for undocumented parents to have. I argued that it is not the child’s fault and that the child is still a citizen of the United States.I’ll admit that I was not prepared to speak before a hundred plus people in the actual floor where the state house meets at. My friends told me that I was shaking when I spoke but it had to be effective. The majority leader for the Democrats and even the minority leader for the Republicans showed no opposition. Those who opposed this bill in the state house did not speak when arguments were made and the bill passed 92 in favor and 6 against. There were actually boos when the vote came for those who voted no to the bill.The senate was a little more different as one argument was said. “Let’s compromise, let’s give the child a birth certificate and deport the parents.” One senator said. My bill passed on a compromise in the Senate 32 in favor 1 against saying that if this bill passed then another bill dealing with eminent domain had to pass.In all, I would say that there were a total of about five percent of the students who were Latino, yet they were the most active five percent that I’ve ever seen. All it takes is a little hard work. Gabriella Bautista from Northern Illinois University won an award for best delegate in the house. Al Cordero was the state comptroller this year and was elected Speaker of the House for next year. In a battle of Latinos, Danny Martinez defeated Maria Estrada to become the new state treasurer in next year’s simulation. The Attorney General this year in the simulation was Scott Rothenberg whose mother is from Argentina. With a little bit of time and effort, you too can not only make a difference but get rewarded for it too. There’s a saying that I heard about someone trying to win the lottery. The person prayed everyday and then asked angrily why he had not won. Then the person heard a voice; “you have to buy a ticket first.” The moral of the story is do your part and things will take care of themselves.
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