Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez is coming to San Francisco Saturday evening as part of a national church-based "listening tour" to highlight the plight of the 3.5 million U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants who risk losing their parents to deportation.

Gutierrez was an early Obama supporter -- one of the first Latino leaders to rally to O's presidential bid -- and had the candidate's ear on legalizing undocumented immigrants.

But immigration reform has slipped down the president's over-full agenda and, as the congressman told The Melting Pot, "He's the president now. I can't just drop by his office any more."

So Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are criss-crossing the country to draw attention to the families that have run afoul of U.S. immigration law. Last weekend in Albuquerque he heard from a 14-year-old girl whose mother returned from the hospital after having open heart surgery and the next morning was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In Atlanta, he heard from a soldier heading off for his third tour of duty in Iraq, not knowing if his wife, who was under a deportation order, would be there when he came home.

"Obama made a promise during his campaign that he would sign comprehensive immigration reform in the first year of his first term in office," Gutierrez told us. "We want him to remember that. So we are going from city to city, church to church, until we organize sufficient voices that he has to act."

Lorena Melgarejo of the inter-faith San Francisco Organizing Project said she's expecting 500 to 1,000 people to attend the event at 6 p.m. Saturday at St. Anthony's Catholic Church, at 3215 Cesar Chavez St.

"His last event drew 3,000 people," said Melgarejo. "It's big. It's really creating momentum around the country."

Posted By: Tyche Hendricks (Email) | March 06 2009 at 06:17 PM

Listed Under: immigration | Comments (7) : Post Comment

Comments
Who paid for mommy's open heart surgery.

Do you realize - that the number of jobs lost is almost equal to the estimate of aliens illegally present in the US.

You know....congressional elections are only about 18 months away...and if congress were to pass immigration reform allowing nearly 12 million law breakers to remain in the country - no doubt displacing hundreds of thousands if not millions of workers who will be willing to accept almost any job in the middle of a recession/depression.....i think there are millions of voters who would be happy to put the congressmen out of work to start looking for a new job.

No legalization until we take care of our own first...regardless whehter the law breakers had US citizen kids. unfortunately the kids pay for the sins of the parents. that happens everyday....everywhere



Posted By: overboard | March 06 2009 at 06:54 PM

Do you realize that the number of stars in one part of a galaxy somewhere is exactly equal to the number illegal immigrants times pi divided by e?

And if you don't realize that, do you understand that illegal immigrants are probably suffering disproportionately from unemployment and that they don't steal jobs but increase the labor supply such that investments which would not have otherwise been made are made and jobs are thereby created?

And do you realize that their needs become demands for services which generate employment for Amerians generally?

And do you realize that undocumented workers pay all kinds of taxes?

And do you realize that someone has worked here for some time without incident and had and raised kids here does not deserve to be deported?

And do you know the history of deportations in the last Depression? Lemon Grove



Posted By: hartal | March 06 2009 at 07:17 PM

Wow,"hartal "

You have such a big heart for Illegals, who cruelly abandon their children in foreign country.

How about the illegals be responsible parents and take their children with them when deport this nation? Why, because that would be responsible.

What is truly sad, "hartal" is the complete lack of compassion for 12, Million unemployed American families and their children who are struggling, and that you would want to see these American children starve and live on the streets, so some criminals can keep the jobs the stole from Americans.

And to "Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez" you can take your Racist back side and renounce your U.S Citizenship as you appear to only want to help illegal Foreign Nationals instead of Americans Citizens.



Posted By: hernandez_usa1 | March 06 2009 at 09:10 PM

OK so a cry for help from someone who does not understand the difference between deportation and abandonment; or

the debates about whether "they" are really taking our jobs or helping to create more jobs for American citizens than there otherwise would have been; or

the debate about whether the best and humane way to protect living standards is through enforcement of our laws rather than through deportion; or

the question of whether people who have worked hard have earned a path to citizenship.

Of course you will find no one tomorrow who is not in favor of intervention to help all those involuntarily unemployed in the US.



Posted By: hartal | March 06 2009 at 09:27 PM

You want to come to USA to work you bring condoms and use them. No kids, ever. Don't forget to turn out the lights when you go back home, you know the country of your origin. Bye Bye...no more worries about anchor children - problem solved.



Posted By: bearjennab | March 06 2009 at 10:19 PM

Not surprising these "activists" are out in force these days, trying to mount a last ditch effort to keep the illegals in the US. Even if the economy was in good shape, they wouldn't have a chance--as things stand right now, they'll be lucky to find one American in ten who support their cause. If Obama thinks he's going to slip an amnesty bill through Congress, as he did with his so-called "stimulus", he needs to think again.



Posted By: heavybuddy | March 06 2009 at 11:46 PM

Comprehensive immigration reform is needed. What's not needed is folks who think of illegal immigrants as objects, or worse, who would treat them worse than stray animals. Even accounting for the illegality of their presence, there's no call for demanding, in essence, that they be picked up by the dogcatcher, spayed and neutered.



Posted By: dsgonzale6 | March 07 2009 at 12:10 AM

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