WASHINGTON, D.C. – We need your help. During the next few weeks and months we urgently need you to contribute your grain of sand to maintain pressure on congress and on Barack Obama’s administration to keep their promise to reform our immigration system and to grant a way for legalization that will help millions of people and contribute to the family unity, that benefits our economy, and contribute to the country’s security.
Last week I wrote that aside from the frustration that can overcome us at times, it’s not time to let down our guard and throw in the towel.
The movement that began a few months ago –years ago-, has to intensify now that Congress is officially back to work. The Lower House this week and the Senate next week. The agenda is full with the healthcare reform, but that doesn’t mean that no effort is made to remind the leaders what they promised.
They’ve already taken the initiative on their own.
The young students that started days ago a walk for the DREAM Act that would legalize them and hundreds of thousands in their situation, are sending reports about what they’ve come upon in the “Trail of Dreams,” a 1,500 mile march that has taken them from Miami to Washington, D.C., that they hope will be completed in four months.
In their portal Trail of Dreams they narrate the details of the walk during which they hope to participate in wakes, manifestations and other events of pressure that will take place. They also want other people to join during their trajectory and defend the immigration reform.
At the same time, in Homestead, Florida, the “Fasting for Our Families” is taking place “on behalf of everyone that has lost a family member in the deportation system.
“The purpose of this fast is to touch the hearts and the minds of those that value family unity and the strength of our communities… President Obama, ¡We can’t wait any longer!,” they point out in their internet portal.
In the walkers’ blog, one of the young men, Felipe Matos, wrote: “all of this week I have been observing the birds migrate South and I felt nostalgia of not having the same liberty of having wings and take flight in whatever direction… nature leads them to fly South and here I am walking North… But the third toe that is growing in my right foot, the cold or the illnesses can not compare to the pain of the immigrant communities.”
On their behalf, the national campaign Immigration Reform Pro America and its allied groups are hoping to impulse the mobilization with events of pressure throughout the country beginning this week, particularly in the key states seeking votes for the immigration reform.
There are events directed at republicans like the senator of Arizona, John McCain, who was the author of comprehensive reform measures and defended it, but who now has been at the edge of the discussions.
They also direct them at democrats like the leader of the majority of the Senate, Harry Reid, who in the past began projects of reform and has assured that he would try to include them in immigration issue in the already full Upper House calendar which begins its work on January 19.
If you have not subscribed to this national campaign, do it now. Remember that you have to send a text message “JUSTICE” to number 69866 using your cell phone. Once registered you will receive text messages about the campaign notifying you of events in which you can participate in your own state and at national level to exercise pressure.
All of the signs that we are in an electoral year are in front of our eyes.
Legislators begin to announce their intentions of not seeking reelection for whatever reasons, the most common because they know that they won’t be reelected; the ones seeking reelection center their attention on that objective.
The White House watches out for its majority in Congress while seeking legislative accomplishments that precisely contribute to that objective and to maintain the trust of the electors this year and in 2012 when Obama seeks his own reelection.
All of this supposes good news because politicians want to demonstrate results trying to fulfill some of their promises, including the immigration reform. But it also supposes a challenge in the competition for legislative priority to make those politicians really demonstrate the will to accomplish things.
Remember that it’s one thing to really do something and very differently to make seem like something was done.
Don’t be fooled.
If the immigration reform would help you, a family member, a friend or someone you know, or simply support it because you believe it’s the sanest thing for this country, make yourself heard now as best as you can, and later on be heard with your best weapon, your vote.
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