Immigration reform conference call draws thousands
Posted on Friday, November 20 @ 00:58:24 EST
Topic: Illegal Immigration News in the US
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 NORTHGLENN, Colo. - Thousands across Colorado came together for 22 parties Wednesday night where the focus was on a single phone call.
Families, activists and politicians gathered to show support for comprehensive immigration reform.
Subjects: Illegal Immigration, immigration reform, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, amnesty, Tom Tancredo, Napalitano, Obama Administration
November 18, 2009
Tammy Vigil
KDVR-TV
It was part of a national effort to hear plans from congressional leaders about passing legislation affecting 12-million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including about 265,000 in Colorado.
One 27-year-old undocumented immigrant who didn't want to be identified visited a gathering in Longmont. She's lived illegally in Colorado since she was seven.
"I was a child. I had no knowledge of where I was going. I didn't know I was going to [be] walking for over 3 hours in zero degrees. I didn't know I was coming to a country where nobody knew my language. I didn't know I was going to face discrimination," she said.
She says she is tired of being afraid of someone finding out her secret, and hopes national leaders can finally fix America's fragmented immigration system. So she listens carefully -via a conference call- to Illinois democrat Luis Gutierrez about legislation he'll introduce in Washington DC this spring that could change her life.
Gutierrez says his plan would do a better job of keeping families together instead of separating them through deportation. He also says it would protect undocumented workers from exploitation and also create a pathway to legalization or what critics call 'amnesty.'
"Amnesty is terrible public policy. It rewards people for doing the wrong thing," says former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo who is mulling a run for governor in Colorado. Besides, he says, amnesty would create future problems.
"We've done this before. This is a replay of 1986. We had all the same promises at that time. That if we do this one amnesty, 'don't worry we'll crack down on employers. We'll strengthen our borders.' that amnesty did nothing but encourage more people to come," Tancredo says.
But supporters of reform say we can't maintain the status quo.
"Our immigration system is so broken and so in need of repair and it's splitting up families. That's what we're here today for," says Julie Gonzales with Reform Immigration for America.
And for that undocumented 27-year-old woman who says her life is a lie, she says reform would bring her out of the shadows.
"I don't know any other land. I don't know any other country. This is my life. I would be willing to do anything."
Immigration reform has been pushed to the backburner because of the economy, health care reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Obama Administration remains committed to overhauling the nation's immigration laws, saying legislation can't wait until everything else is out of the way.
It is a mid-term election year. And critics say lawmakers won't be eager to pass anything so controversial when their jobs are on the line.
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