Advocacy Group, Pushing for Reform on Immigration, Stops in Polk During Bus Tour

Eliseo Medinaof Fast for Families greets the crowd of Young American Dreamers and other supporters as he steps off the bus during a stop at the Farmworker Center in Auburndale on Tuesday.

AUBURNDALE | Many in the Auburndale neighborhood might not have understood the cries of "Si, se puede" coming from a crowd of several dozen people about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

They probably would have understood the English version: Yes, we can.

A crowd of mostly young people met a bus from Fast for Families: A Call for Immigration Reform and Citizenship, a nationwide advocacy group that stopped in Polk County to promote its cause. It included an earlier stop at the Lakeland office of U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, to press for action in the U.S. House of Representatives on comprehensive immigration reform.

The welcome rally assembled outside 318 W. Bridgers Ave., the headquarters for Centro Campesino, a social services ministry for local farmworkers, where they ate a lunch of tacos, beans and rice. Most of the welcomers were from Young American Dreamers, an Auburndale-based organization advocating for young people denied education and other benefits because their parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children.

The nationwide tour started on Feb. 24 with two buses, this one on a southern route and the other through northern states, according to its website, http://fast4families.org. The tour will end April 9 at a Washington, D.C., rally.

Eliseo Medina, a tour organizer and former secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, said they asked Ross to take one of three actions:

Call for a vote on the U.S. Senate immigration reform bill that passed last year but has stalled in the House.

Call for a vote on H.R. 15, a House measure similar to the Senate bill but with different language on border security issues.

Support a bill based on an agreement reached last year by the House "Gang of Eight," a bipartisan group of representatives.

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Advocacy Group, Pushing for Reform on Immigration, Stops in Polk During Bus Tour

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