Thread: In Austin, marchers say time is now for immigration reform

Posted: 6:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, 2013
By Juan Castillo
American-Statesman Staff


Luis Rosales of El Paso chants as he heads from Republic Square Park to the Capitol during Friday’s Texans Demand Immigration Reform march and rally in downtown Austin.

On April 10, 2006, a crowd estimated at 10,000 people marched in Austin, pressing for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. Millions took to the streets in similar demonstrations across the country that day.

On Friday, a considerably smaller crowd marched again, but participants and their supporters said they were more optimistic than ever about the prospects for new laws to allow the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally to apply for citizenship. They cited growing momentum for reform and bipartisan support in the wake of the 2012 presidential election.

“The moment is now for immigration reform. This is and will be our year when we will be able to bring millions of families” into legal status, Fernando Garcia of El Paso, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, told boisterous supporters at the Capitol.

In scenes reminiscent of the 2006 march and subsequent demonstrations over the years, hundreds of people from across Texas marched from Republic Square to Congress Avenue and the Capitol for the Texans Demand Immigration Reform rally. Many waved American flags and kept a steady drumbeat of full-throated chants in Spanish, including the signature “Si Se Puede” (“Yes, We Can.”)

Organizers, who estimated the crowd at 2,000 people, said it was the country’s first large statewide mobilization for immigration reform since the 2012 elections rekindled the debate. A number of marchers traveled by bus from the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth.

President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators are calling for immigration reforms that would include a path to citizenship.

Though optimistic, Garcia said the fight to win legalization, now more than 20 years old, cannot come at just any cost, such as more deportations and “more militarization” of the border.

“What we are marching for is a just and humane reform. We want one that will reunite families,” said Esther Reyes, director of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition. The coalition organized Friday’s events together with the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance.

In the crowd, holding his 3-year-old son, Gabriel, 30-year-old Honorato Gutierrez, who is not authorized to live in this country, said he lives in fear every day that under current laws he will be separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen, and his family. “I don’t want to live with that fear anymore,” said Gutierrez, a Mexican immigrant.

A construction worker by trade, Gutierrez said the vast majority of immigrants in the country illegally are here to work and to seek a better life for their families. “It’s demanding work, construction work, Gutierrez said. “A lot of Americans don’t want these jobs.”

In Austin, marchers say time is now for immigration reform | www.statesman.com

“It’s demanding work, construction work, Gutierrez said. “A lot of Americans don’t want these jobs.”

I've personally known men who have had to leave construction due to the illegals taking over the jobs. These are jobs Americans will do for a decent wage.