Four current and former Catholic Charities Immigration Services staff members from Little Rock traveled to Washington, D.C., to join other advocates who want immigration reform to be the next big issue tacked at the Capitol.
Joining director Maricella Garcia were Jennifer Corbin, the former office manager, Reagan Stanford, crime victim services coordinator, and Nubia Torres, an immigration specialist.
By bus from across the country and on foot from across town, an estimated 200,000 people flocked to the National Mall March 21 for the March for America to press Congress and President Barack Obama — with signs, banners, T-shirts, chants and prayers — to make good on promises to fix the immigration system.
U.S. citizens, legal immigrants and some who admitted they are in the country illegally covered a six-block stretch of the Mall to make their case for reforming a system that keeps families apart, limits students’ education prospects and causes millions of people to exist “in the shadows,” because they lack legal papers.
Before marching three miles past the Capitol to RFK Stadium, where their buses waited, the exuberant, hopeful crowd waved flags and signs as dozens of speakers took to the stage to tell their personal immigration stories.
A videotaped message of support from President Obama brought a hush to the crowd, turning to cheers as he pledged “to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue. You know as well as I do that this won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. But if we work together — across ethnic, state and party lines — we can build a future worthy of our history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.”
Garcia said she was inspired that at the beginning of the rally people of all faiths began with prayer.
“It is so relevant because what we are talking about is from faith. We are talking about what Jesus has told us to do,” she said.
Garcia said she was also impressed with the racial diversity of the crowd.
“Not everybody who is an immigrant is Hispanic,” she said. “We saw Chinese groups that were there. We saw Asians groups, the Philippines. We saw people from Europe that were there.”
While at the rally and the preceding ecumenical conference, Garcia used Catholic Charities Immigration Services blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts to relay information to supporters back home.
On March 22 Garcia, Corbin and the Rev. Steve Copley, a Methodist minister and director of Justice For Our Neighbors, visited with Rep. Vic Snyder at his Washington office. In tow were about 1,500 postcards signed by U.S. citizens from his district who want Snyder to support reform. The postcards came from a campaign organized by Garcia’s office through the national Justice for Immigrants organization in February and March. Diocesan employees and volunteers visited about 60 churches to gather signatures. Postcards were also signed by members of other Christian churches and students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.
They also tried to visit Sen. Blanche Lincoln, but they were not allowed to bring the 2,800 postcards inside the Senate building. The group did not see Reps. Marion Berry and John Boozman, but planned to visit them in their Little Rock offices following Easter. Bishop Anthony B. Taylor was scheduled to visit with Sen. Mark Pryor April 8.
While in Washington, Garcia was not lobbying for a specific bill before Congress.
“We are not asking for this bill or that bill,” she said. “What we are asking for is for them to have a debate, to open the discussion. If they are willing to do that, I think we can make the reforms that are necessary. If we don’t do that, we are going to continue to have the same problems forever.”
One idea she likes is similar to what happened in early 2001. A temporary legalization program was allowed for certain undocumented workers. They had to pay $2,010 in fees and fines to legalize their status.
“What the USCCB wants is equity and justice. We are not talking about helping criminals,” she said.
Garcia said one of the ideal bills is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 sponsored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois.
“It’s the bill we want that has everything in it,” she said. “If they passed all of that we would be very happy.”
Personally Garcia said she would like to see the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act passed to help undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools qualify for in-state college tuition.
“For me that is the most important piece. I want immigration reform for everyone because it is vital and necessary for our country. … But if there is any one piece of legislation that is going to pass, it needs to be the DREAM Act. Those children had no choice coming to the United States,” she said.
While they might qualify for out-of-state or foreign student rates, the costs are usually too high for those students, Garcia said.
She said the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security (AgJOBS) Act is also important to ensure farmworkers are treated fairly.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have another proposed immigration reform bill but are still looking for additional sponsors.
“We have hope we can get a discussion going by June,” Garcia said. “(President Obama) said he was going to do immigration reform in the first year and he didn’t. He met with Schumer and Graham and he met a lot of Latino community groups and reiterated his commitment to it.”
The past two years working for immigration clients at Catholic Charities clearly weighs on Garcia.
“I am tired of telling children they can’t do anything about their status. It hurts me to see these kids,” she said. “I have to tell them the truth … We can’t help everyone because there is not a process for them. It really hurts me to see these brilliant children being excluded for a decision they had no part of.”
Get immigration updates from Catholic Charities Immigration Services-Little Rock at cislr.blogspot.com, through Twitter @cislr and Facebook.
Catholic News Service contributed to this article.
