2014 Chicago Immigration Reform Rally – Video
2014 Chicago Immigration Reform Rally
Immigration Reform rally on Clark and Van Buren 3/27/2014.
By: Mario Garcia
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Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category
Immigration Reform Press Conference – Part 3 – Video
Immigration Reform Press Conference - Part 3
At State Capitol in St Paul, MN.
By: Herman Colon
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Bishops seek immigration reform during Arizona-Mexico border trip
PHOENIX Less than a week after President Barack Obama discussed immigration reform in a meeting with Pope Francis, a delegation of Roman Catholic leaders is visiting the U.S-Mexico border Tuesday to raise awareness about the plight of immigrants and to pray for policy changes.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of Francis' key advisers and the leader of the Boston Archdiocese, will be joined by members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for an early morning walk in the desert along the border, followed by a Mass at the fence separating the two countries in southern Arizona.
"The purpose of this journey here to Arizona is to raise a consciousness about the need for our president and Congress to pass immigration policy and reform to address a broken system," said Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Tucson Diocese.
"We're also here to pray for those who have lost their lives along the border."
Dozens of immigrants die each year in the brutal desert terrain while trying to cross illegally into the United States along the roughly 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico. The Catholic leaders note that immigrants are simply trying to find better lives and jobs in America and that thousands of them have died crossing the Southwest desert in recent decades.
"What we fail to remember in this debate is the human aspect of immigration that immigration is primarily about human beings, not economic or social issues," said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle and chairman of the conference's Committee on Migration.
TThose who have died, and those deported each day, have the same value and innate God-given dignity as all persons, yet we ignore their suffering and their deaths."
The push for immigration reform in Congress has been stalled for months, with Democrats and Republicans unable to reach an agreement over the divisive issue.
House Democrats last week tried to force a vote on a comprehensive immigration bill, an effort that is likely to fail given Republican reluctance to address the topic in an election year while all signs point to major gains for the GOP in the November midterms.
The Senate passed a comprehensive bill last June, but the measure stalled in the GOP-controlled House where Republicans have argued for a piecemeal approach to reforming the system.
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Bishops seek immigration reform during Arizona-Mexico border trip
Cesar Chavez's legacy is at work in the White House
WASHINGTON When prominent Latino activists meet with President Obama, there's one White House staff member present whom many of them have known since she was a child.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez grew up handing out leaflets and knocking on doors with her grandfather, Cesar Chavez, whose campaign to organize farmworkers still inspires today's Latino leaders.
As deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement, Rodriguez runs Obama's organizing efforts in support of immigration reform and supervises Latino outreach.
On Monday Cesar Chavez Day in California, Colorado and Texas she spoke about her family at a White House event to honor volunteers and community organizers from around the country.
"My grandfather used to tell us that the job of an organizer was to help ordinary people do extraordinary things," Rodriguez, 35, told the crowd. "One of my favorite quotes from my grandfather says: 'Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.'"
Rodriguez usually keeps a much lower profile as a Chavez descendant. Her role is to defend the White House's slow-and-steady approach to immigration reform while many activists have demanded Obama use his executive powers to stop deportations.
Two top Latino leaders recently branded Obama the "deporter in chief," challenging the president's argument that he can't take further actions on his own but can only press Congress to pass legislation to overhaul the immigration laws.
In support of Obama's view, Rodriguez cites "Tata Cesar" and his decades of organizing farmworkers. "My grandfather helped me to understand that change isn't immediate," she said. "It doesn't happen overnight. It does take a lot of time and sacrifice. It takes consistent, sustained organizing and pressure to be able to see great progress in our country."
Rodriguez was born in Delano, Calif., home of the Delano grape strike and not far from the Chavez family home where her mother, Linda, was raised. Rodriguez grew up mostly at the United Farm Workers headquarters, a small community named Nuestra Seora Reina de la Paz, or Our Lady of Peace, in Keene, in the Tehachapi Mountains.
She and her cousins used to accompany their grandfather as he sought to build his labor union. They joked that while other people went on family picnics, they went on family pickets.
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Bishops seek immigration reform during border trip – Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, Sports
By BRIAN SKOLOFF Associated Press
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) - Roman Catholic leaders made a rare visit to the border and celebrated Mass on Tuesday in the shadow of the fence separating the U.S. and Mexico, offering Holy Communion through the steel barrier to people on the Mexican side as they sought to bring attention to the plight of immigrants.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the leader of the Boston Archdiocese, led a delegation of bishops from around the country and Mexico in the trip to the border, less than a week after President Barack Obama discussed immigration reform in a meeting with Pope Francis. They toured the border city of Nogales, walked along a notorious section of the border that was once a popular crossing point for drug and immigrant smugglers, and celebrated Mass just a few feet from the fence.
The Catholic leaders believe that immigration is a humanitarian issue that deserves urgent attention by Congress. They cite the dozens of immigrants who die each year in the brutal desert terrain while trying to cross illegally into the United States along the roughly 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico and note that the immigrants are simply trying to find better lives in America.
"This is not just a political or economic problem," O'Malley said Tuesday. "This is a moral problem."
Several hundred people attended the Mass, which was translated into Spanish, and a few dozen people peered through the border fence from Mexico to watch the ceremony. O'Malley and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Tucson Diocese offered Holy Communion through the fence, providing people in Mexico wafers as a blessing as some of the recipients broke down in tears.
During the Mass, the clergymen laid a wreath at the border wall to remember those who have died. It followed a similar event in Lampedusa, Italy, last year when the pope threw a wreath into the Mediterranean Sea to remember migrants who have died attempting to reach Europe.
The push for immigration reform in Congress has been stalled for months, with Democrats and Republicans unable to reach an agreement over the divisive issue.
House Democrats last week tried to force a vote on a comprehensive immigration bill, an effort that is likely to fail given Republican reluctance to address the topic in an election year while all signs point to major gains for the GOP in the November midterms.
The Senate passed a comprehensive bill last June, but the measure stalled in the GOP-controlled House, where Republicans have argued for a piecemeal approach to reforming the system.
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