Thread: Latinos get active in border-law reforms

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/columnists/189335.php

Tucson Region
Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Latinos get active in border-law reforms
Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr.
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.27.2007
advertisementNot quite with the precision of a marching band but with similar determination, a small group of Latino immigrants on Tuesday walked into U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl's Tucson office and joined in the national immigration reform debate.
About 20 children, teenagers and adults carried with them 3,000 signed postcards — and the hope for a new and rational immigration law.
"We are here to ask Senator Kyl to support immigration reform and to support family unification," Raquel Ochoa said in Spanish to a Kyl staffer accepting the postcards. The delivery was made not long after the Senate narrowly agreed on one of several major hurdles a bipartisan immigration plan faces.
Ochoa and her two American-born children were pinning their optimism on Kyl's support of legislation that would grant Ochoa the opportunity to become a legal resident and to remain here with her children.
"Without it, we would lose everything," said Ochoa's daughter, Jocelyn, 11, a middle-school student.
The 3,000 postcards are an addition to an earlier batch of 10,000 delivered to Kyl's office in the past month, said Jennifer Allen of Border Action Network, an immigrant-rights group.
Border Action Network and other similar groups across Tucson and the country have energized immigrants, legal and otherwise, to lobby for immigration reform. But unlike the opposition groups, which are using computer-generated calls and letters, Ochoa and her friends meet as small groups in in living rooms and churches.
About two weeks ago, Eddie "PiolÃ*n" Sotelo, a popular Los Angeles Spanish-language radio talk-show host, drove across the country and delivered 1 million signed letters to Congress, along with a message.
"They are voices of men, women and children who are asking you to look deep into your hearts to bring those millions out of the shadows and establish a legal, workable immigration system," Sotelo said during a news conference on June 14 — Flag Day.
It's not just Latino immigrants who are pushing for immigration reform.
In March, Irish immigrants in San Francisco rallied for immigration reform during the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Thousands of Irish immigrants have overstayed their tourist visas and are working illegally. Ditto for people from many other countries who have staked a foothold and their future in our country.
But the vast majority of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants are from Mexico and other Latin American countries. They have led protest marches and the letter-writing campaign.
The Tucson postcard campaign began in mid-April at Vida Nueva, a South Side church. Several hundred participants wore brightly colored T-shirts. Each colored shirt represented a school, a church, a neighborhood or even a town.
The immigrants' grass-roots effort has been sustained by the reality that in the absence of immigration reform, their families will face more difficulties maintaining their underground lives. Immigrant families increasingly are being split up.
Ochoa said just getting pulled over for a traffic violation could lead to her deportation.
"We have to be constantly looking over our shoulders," said Ochoa, who came to work illegally in Tucson 13 years ago with her husband.
The future of immigration legislation remains uncertain in Congress. Senate approval will be difficult, and passage in the House will be more so.
Congress may fail to give Ochoa a real shot at staying here legally. But she's willing to take that chance. This is now Ochoa's home and country.
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I am sorry about her lost, but she entered the country illegal and knew the risk. She made the decision and she needs to live with it.