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Florida's Immigrants Pin Hopes on Obama

Maria Mora's husband was returning home from work about two years ago when he noticed a van moving slowly through the parking lot of their apartment complex in south Orlando.

Emblazoned on the vehicle were the letters that strike fear in the hearts of undocumented immigrants: ICE -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Peruvian man walked discreetly past the van and reached his apartment, where he quickly alerted his wife. They locked themselves in a room with their three U.S.-born children, afraid the agents would bust through their door to take them away.

It turned out to be a false alarm. Still, news of ongoing immigration raids and deportations throughout the state and the nation kept the Moras on high alert. Now, Maria Mora says the election of President Barack Obama has brought a feeling of hope for her family.


More Orlando Sentinel blogs "We are very hopeful that he, as the son of an immigrant, will have a heart," said Mora, a finance graduate in her native Peru who is now a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, an engineer by trade, works at a car-upholstery shop. They came to the United States eight years ago on tourist visas that expired.

Undocumented immigrants such as the Moras and their advocates are counting on Obama to deliver on his campaign promises of immigration reform -- a divisive issue for which the last administration could not gain consensus.

Meanwhile, organizations that support tough immigration enforcement are gearing up for a showdown.

Leaders of NumbersUSA, one of the most prominent immigration-restriction advocacy groups, say there is an oversupply of immigrant workers that is hurting Americans looking for jobs in a bad economy.

"There will be a fight" over immigration, said Roy Beck, director and founder of NumbersUSA, based in Washington, D.C.

As a preemptive move, a coalition of immigrant activists from throughout the country, including members from Central Florida, attended the Obama inauguration and welcomed the 44th president by holding a rally for reform in Washington.

"We want them to know what the core demands are," said Jose Luis Marantes, a community organizer with the Florida Immigrant Coalition in Orlando, who went to the rally. "People have shown with their votes that they want change and that they don't want this thing to fester."

Their list of demands includes an end to immigration raids, but they also are advocating for "just and fair immigration reform" such as the proposed earned legalization program that ended in spectacular failure in 2007.


Immigration opposition

Reform opponents are not only against any form of what they call amnesty; they are also calling for a slowdown of most legal immigration.

"We are going to have a great national public debate on this, and I don't think Obama wants this debate to happen," said Beck of NumbersUSA. "It will be a very divisive kind of debate which could drag down his efforts on higher priorities such as Iraq, the economy and entitlements."

Florida pro-enforcement activists say that battle will take place at both state and national levels.

"All of the pro-enforcement immigration groups are geared up and ready," said David Caulkett, vice president of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement in Pompano Beach. "Until the country has the will to enforce the law, this battle is going to continue."

Still, those who support reform for the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants are feeling emboldened.

One main reason: Hispanics and legal immigrants voted in record numbers, helping decide the outcome in several key states. Many analysts agree that though both presidential candidates supported immigration reform, many Hispanic voters penalized Republicans for the failure of the Bush administration and Congress to pass the earned legalization bill.

Frank Sharry, director of the national immigrant-advocacy group America's Voice, said he expects Obama and the new Congress to take up immigration in the fall. He anticipates a vote on a final immigration bill by March 2010.



Democrats, he said, should be mindful about not upsetting the growing coalition of pro-reform voters.

"Elections matter," Sharry said. "It needed to be proven to the political class that swing voters want a solution; Latinos and immigrant voters want respect; and that hard-line opponents of reform . . . make a lot of noise but don't have a lot of juice."

Although some groups in Florida -- such as undocumented agricultural workers, students and Haitian refugees -- would be satisfied with piecemeal legislation on visa programs that would help them, they unanimously support a comprehensive legalization program.

The pro-immigrant coalition has the support of large Hispanic advocacy groups and community organizers at the grass-roots level. In addition, it has earned the backing of labor unions and businesses.
The Roman Catholic Church has also been a long-standing supporter of immigration reform, and now other churches that serve immigrants are joining the cause.

Angel Marcial -- an Orlando pastor who heads the Fraternidad de Concilios y Entidades Evangelicas, a group that represents more than 1,000 Hispanic evangelical churches in the Southeast -- announced plans to hire a lobbyist and vowed to continue the fight for reform.

"We understand that the fundamental discourse of the church, regardless of denomination, is to lend a hand to those who suffer and to the least of us in our communities," Marcial said.

For the Moras, their storefront evangelical church in south Orlando is a sanctuary. They avoid government offices. They don't take their three boys, ages 2, 4 and 7, on many outings. The father, who asked not to be identified, rides a bicycle to work and to shop for groceries, fearing a traffic stop by authorities if he gets behind the wheel.

When they do venture out, it's to attend Sunday services and evening prayers.

At the top of their prayer list is immigration reform.

"We don't want our American children growing up with a feeling that they don't belong here," Mora said. "We want to contribute to this country, but we are not allowed."