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Sofia Cava| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Recently I traveled to Washington D.C., as one of 10 students involved with Define America, the student group that aims to amplify the voices of the immigrant community in our country.

The purpose of our trip was to meet with representatives and senators in Washington to lobby for immigration reform. We sought to do this by holding these elected officials accountable for past promises and by pushing them to support or oppose certain bills.

It seemed simple: We were going to engage in difficult conversations and walk out feeling hopeful about the future. But we could not have been more wrong. What we encountered instead was a widespread sense of defeat.

As we spoke to staff members representing the various elected officials, we were assured that "Senator X" or "Representative Y" cared deeply about immigration reform but that they were unable to enact meaningful change. The system is broken, they told us (as if our own experiences hadnt already taught us that).

The responses caused the morale of our group to wane with each meeting we held.

The staffer we spoke to from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warrens office gave us the most honest, if disheartening, feedback of the whole trip. Yes, there are bills being introduced to support immigration reform, she said but no, there is no confidence that anything will change. Because there has been no real immigration reform in decades, the time and effort needed to implement proactive policies is now being drained away by urgent attempts to stop the continued undermining of immigrant rights.

Each time an elected official in Washington tries to introduce legislation to fix the immigration system, we were told, they are met with bullheadedness from the opposition and cowardice from those supposedly dedicated to reform.

I asked myself what could be done. The solution is simple, but implementing it is not.

Look at the steps that have been taken to swiftly allow Ukrainian refugees to enter the country and then look at the systemic barriers faced by their Hispanic counterparts who seek refuge. One group is deemed the victim of an unjustified war perpetuated by an international war criminal while the other is stigmatized as full of criminals, drug dealers and job thieves.

Both groups face life-threatening conditions at home, and both are left with no option but to flee.

But one is white, the other brown.

It is time we stop looking at Hispanic immigrants as statistics. These are human beings who possess the same fears and aspirations shared by all groups of people. They are individuals who are willing to travel thousands of miles despite knowing they will face mistreatment in a foreign country and they do so because they also know the conditions at home are far worse. That's why as long as the problems in Central and South America persist, people are going to keep coming to the United States.

Its hard to blame someone for doing everything possible to make a better life for themselves and their families. You would likely do the same. So I urge you to stand up for immigration reform. It will be a difficult process, but it will only be harder and longer if those of us who yearn for change accept defeat.

The magnitude of the challenge should inspire us to keep holding our public officials accountable by signing petitions, having difficult conversations, raising awareness and humanizing immigrants. By taking these simple steps on our own, we can overcome the racism and polarization that are obstacles to a more equitable and humane immigration system.

Sofia Cava is a Sarasota native and a first-year student at Duke University, where she is studying public policy and human rights. She is a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School.

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Too many lawmakers have given up on immigration reform - but we won't - Sarasota Herald-Tribune