Thread: TX: Migrant March’s second trip along border

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Migrant March’s second trip along border looking for immigration stories
February 10,2007
Sara Perkins
Monitor Staff Writer

McALLEN — Now that the Democrats control both houses of Congress, it’s time for them to listen to the people who elected them and enact immigration reform, the organizer of an immigration activist group said Friday.

Marcha Migrante II, a caravan that departed San Diego on Feb. 2, arrived in Mission on Thursday and stopped for breakfast with local immigrant and anti-racism groups in McAllen on Friday morning.

Last year’s Marcha Migrante covered more terrain, said organizer Enrique Morones, also the founder of the pro-immigrant group Border Angels, because it was about sparking discussion and encouraging people to demonstrate. This year, it’s about collecting stories, he said.

"Last year, we were able to get a lot of things done. People not only marched, but we registered them to vote and we made the change in Congress — got the Democrats in power — and that’s fantastic," he said. "Now that those people are in power, now we want to take those (immigration) stories to Washington, D.C. …

"Now we want the immigration reform."

Representatives of several local activist groups, including A Resource in Serving Equality and La Union del Pueblo Entero, read letters from supporters at the South Texas Immigration Council headquarters Friday before the caravan set off for visits to Pharr, Weslaco, Harlingen, San Benito and, finally, a press conference and reception with Brownsville Mayor Eddie Treviño.

"This is great here in McAllen to see the community coming out and supporting us, and people getting together to fight racism," said Francisco Dominguez, a photographer who is traveling with the caravan.

About six carloads of participants stopped Thursday at La Lomita mission for a short prayer service and a discussion before they bedded down at a nearby church campground.

After reaching Brownsville on Friday, the caravan was scheduled to return to Eagle Pass today and then head north to San Antonio before making its way back to San Diego.

"Border Angels is at the forefront of addressing one of the key civil rights and human rights issues of our time, which is immigration — humane immigration and the end of deaths on the border," said Russell Dehnel, a San Diego human rights activist who drove down with his 12-year-old son, Matthew.

"We want to have humane and comprehensive immigration reform," Morones said. "There’s 12 million undocumented people in the country, and we want all 12 million to have a pathway to legalization. If they’re real criminals, of course they should be in jail, but these people, their only crime is having been born poor."

Jay Johnson Castro, the Del Rio man who walked the border from Laredo to Brownsville last year to protest the construction of a border wall, was among the participants who came with the caravan from San Diego. Marcha Migrante, he said, "is to reinforce the fact that we not only do not need a wall — we need a massive, wholesale overhaul of immigration policy."

Stops along the way have included paying homage to people who died crossing the border, either because of harsh conditions or during confrontations with the U.S. Border Patrol. Morones carried a cross Friday inscribed with the words "Ni una muerte mas" — "Not one more death."

"People are dying by the hundreds and this is unnecessary," Castro said. "We call them illegal. That’s a branding that’s politically designed. These are refugees who are desperate for opportunity, food, home, shelter that they don’t have where they are."

and not pro-amnesty groups. Democrats were elected because of Iraq and the corruption of Republicans in Congress not to give amnesty to illegals. Democrats however, have taken money from big business or own big businesses which hire illegals. Foolish creatures once the illegals get amnesty they will demand hirer wages and more benefits. It is a never ending cycle. The only thing that changes is the number of people that the american taxpayers will have to support which the democrats like. Bigger government, more taxes. The theme song of the democrats.