Thread: SANTA MARIA CA: Advocates rally for immigration reform

Advocates rally for immigration reform

By Luis Ernesto Gomez/Staff Writer
As part of a growing debate over immigration, about 100 people sang and prayed outside Santa Maria City Hall Wednesday evening in support of an immigration policy that would keep families together.

The vigil - one of many in a nationwide campaign - was a combined protest of two impacts of immigration policy: One dealing with family union and another with economy.

In addition to the supporters - including PUEBLO Education Fund activists, a local pastor and a Santa Maria city councilwoman - the vigil opened with a half-dozen opponents displaying signs and American flags across Broadway.

Like activists nationwide, local organizers protested the deportation last month of Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant who became an advocate of immigration reform while taking sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year. When she was sent back to Mexico, she was separated from her 8-year-old son, Saul, who is a U.S. citizen because he was born in this country.

The mother-son story is just one example of what many families go through when a parent or spouse faces deportation, said Cruz Phillips, interim executive director of the PUEBLO Education Fund.

A recent Urban Institute and Pew Hispanic Center study found that about 3.1 million U.S.-born children have parents who are here illegally.

Phillips said the vigil also coincides with the current effort in which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing to enforce the “no-matchâ€

As part of a growing debate over immigration, about 100 people sang and prayed outside Santa Maria City Hall Wednesday evening in support of an immigration policy that would keep families together.

Ain't gonna happen, take your anchor babies and GO HOME! If you leave them behind, we will know just how moral you people are.