Senate to Hold First-Ever Hearing Addressing Anti-Gay Discrimination in US Immigration Law

So check out this exciting news...the Senate is going to hold its first-ever hearing addressing discrimination towards LGBTQ persons in immigration law!

Immigration Equality, an organization I work with that focuses on ending discrimination in US immigration law and helping obtain asylum status for LGBT and HIV+ persons persecuted in their home countries, just sent me this press release:

For Immediate Release Contact: Steve Ralls
May 28, 2009 (202) 347-7007 / sralls@immigrationequality.org

Senate to Hold First-Ever Hearing Addressing Anti-Gay Discrimination in U.S. Immigration Law
June 3^rd Judiciary Hearing Will Debate Uniting American Families Act

What: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first-ever hearing on The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a bill to end discrimination against lesbian and gay Americans in U.S. immigration law and allow lesbian and gay citizens to sponsor their partners for residency in the United States.

Who: The hearing was scheduled by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the lead Senate sponsor of UAFA. Witnesses will include binational couples who have been separated, or face separation, because of discriminatory U.S. immigration law.

Why: An estimated 36,000 binational couples are impacted by U.S. laws prohibiting gay and lesbian Americans from sponsoring their partners for residency. Countless lesbian and gay families, including many with children, are torn apart by U.S. immigration law, or are forced to leave the United States in order to remain together. While 19 other nations allow lesbian and gay citizens to sponsor their partners, the United States continues to discriminate against tens of thousands of families. As the nation prepares to consider immigration reform, the Judiciary Committee hearing will provide an important opportunity for lawmakers to hear from some of those families.

When: Wednesday, June 3, 2009

10:00am

Where: Room 226 – Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.

For more information, please contact Steve Ralls, with Immigration Equality, at (202) 347-7007, or email sralls@immigrationequaltiy.org.

# # #

Immigration Equality is a national organization that works to end discrimination in U.S. immigration law, to reduce the negative impact of that law on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people, and to help obtain asylum for those persecuted in their home country based on their sexual orientation, transgender identity or HIV-status. Through education, outreach, advocacy, and the maintenance of a nationwide network of resources, we provide information and support to advocates, attorneys, politicians and those who are threatened by persecution or the discriminatory impact of the law.

Check back in next week and I'll make sure I get you full coverage of the hearing!

Last Week: In Our Community

Immigration news and updates from Monday May 18 through Tuesday May 26.

Deportations Carried Out in the Middle of Immigration Cases
This LA Times article reports that ICE agents have taken to arresting people at Immigration Court in downtown LA and deporting them immediately, before an immigration judge has had the final word on the defendant's case. Lawyers claim that this is a clear violation of due process.

Fingerprinting Plan Will Dramatically Increase Deportations
While fingerprinting and deporting hardened criminals may seem like a benign idea, lawyers and other advocates fear that the new Secure Communities program plan of fingerprinting everyone who enters a local jail will lead to increased deportations for minor infractions like running a stop sign. As this article states, " immigrants don’t have the right to have an attorney represent them in immigration proceedings. So if someone is acquitted of a crime but shows up in a database as being in the United States illegally, he can be deported even if he’s here legally, simply because he can’t prove his legal status and doesn’t have the right to a lawyer who can help him."

Immigration Duties Undermine Police Role: Study
A new report by the nonpartisan Police Foundation deeply criticizes the 287(g) program--a program which trains local police officers to act as immigration agents--for undermining the police role of community safety. The report claims that the program diverts scarce resources away from fighting crime and exposes agencies to "increased liability and litigation."

US Senators Seek to Reunite Torn Immigrant Families
On Wednesday, US Senators introduced legislation "aimed at bringing together immigrant families who are often torn apart for years due to a severe backlog." The bill will place a priority on getting visas to the spouses and minor children of green card holders. It would also provide more visas by "recapturing" visas lost in past years due to bureaucratic backlogs and provide a special category for the children and grandchildren of Filipino veterans.

White House, Lawmakers to Meet on Immigration
On June 8, leaders from both parties will head to the White House to talk shop on immigration. The administration says they hope to establish where varying interests have common ground and where they still have work to do.

Mentally Ill Detainees' Treatment at Hospitals Worries Advocates
Disability-rights lawyers say that the treatment of mentally ill immigrant detainees is illegal, violating both state and federal laws. In a little known network of hospitals around the country where ICE agents hold mentally ill immigrants, immigrants are kept out of reach of lawyers and family, and remain shackled to their beds 24 hours a day, prohibited from watching TV or making telephone calls.

TAKE ACTION: Humanity for Haiti

Grant Haitians Temporary Protected Status

A Month of Solidarity: Humanity for Haiti

CALL PERIOD EXTENDED! Tuesday, May 5 — Friday, May 29, 20091-800-906-5989

Urge President Obama to grant TPS for Haitians

Your five minutes of solidarity with Haiti can make the difference! Please call President Obama and urge him to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the United States.

Given the devastating and overwhelming conditions in Haiti, TPS is the most immediate form of humanitarian assistance the United States government can provide. The U.S. government has granted TPS to nationals from other countries that face significant hardship and suffering.

Storms and hurricanes in Haiti have left scores of people dead, an estimated one million families and children homeless, and destroyed local crops needed for food. Presently 70% of the Haitian people are unemployed, while still others wait for relief and assistance. Deporting Haitians in the United States by not granting TPS aggravates the island's political, economic, social andhumanitarian crisis. Please call today!

Step 1: Call 1-800-906-5989 to connect to the White House Comment Line. (Call time: Monday — Friday 9 am to 5 pm ET)

Step 2: Speak to the operator and ask that your message be conveyed to the President. Urge President Obama to grant Temporary Protected Status to our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Or take a few seconds to send an e-mail to the president.

Whether you e-mail or call, we urge you to personalize your message to President Obama.

Cosponsors: Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Haitian Women of Miami. Inc (FANM), Latin American and Caribbean Community Center.

The Reuniting Families Act Is Introduced in the Senate!

Today, Senators Menendez, Kennedy, and Gillibrand introduced the Reuniting Families Act (S. 1085), a bill which would enable US citizens and permanent residents to reunite with their foreign born family members more quickly and reduce the emotional and financial hardship placed on families separated for years or even decades.

FCNL applauds the introduction of this bill as we see families as critical to the development of healthy individuals and strong communities. It is atrocious that our current system requires siblings of US citizens to wait between 10 and 22 years to be reunited and that the children and spouses of permanent residents must wait as long as seven years to legally come to the United States. Families should be together.

The Reuniting Families Act goes a long way in righting the injustices of the current family immigration system and moves towards keeping families together.

Last Week (and the last few weeks): In Our Community Continued...

Alright, folks, I'm back for day two of catching up you all up with immigration news and updates.

Going back three weeks, the Senate Judiciary Committee began its work on immigration overhaul by holding the first in a series of hearings on varying components of the immigration question (the second hearing of the series will be held tomorrow, May 20). Secretary of Labor Solis also called for an end of immigrant worker exploitation while speaking at a green jobs event in New Jersey. She said, "unpaid wages will continue to be a problem for day laborers until comprehensive immigration reform is undertaken at the federal level."

The Wall Street Journal called for an "immigration stimulus," claiming we need immigration reform and immigrants to boost our economy out of its current recession. Meanwhile, sheriffs in Arizona want to work against a long-standing US Supreme Court decision that makes it illegal for school officials to ask children about their legal status. As far as I can tell, this desire grows out of nativist tendencies which believe that "taxpayers are underwriting millions of dollars of costs of teaching English to children who have no legal right to be here." Such a belief underwrites the basic value of education, as well as ignores the millions of children who are US citizen children of undocumented parents.

A study released in late April also shows great disparities in asylum cases depending on who presided over the case. Refugee requests for asylum were granted at a rate of 15% in one office compared to 73% in another. The study also showed that asylum seekers were three times more liked to win their case if they had a lawyer.

With increased enforcement over the last 8 years, undocumented parents are increasingly losing custody of their US citizen children. Immigration judges are thrown into complicated transnational custody battles, and parents are often brought to custody hearings from detention without the proper representation of a lawyer who can explain what is actually happening in a language they understand.

The same week Senators Durbin and Grassley introduced the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act which is intended to "presever the controversial H-1B program that allows US companies to hire foreign workers, but to limit its abuse.

Going back four weeks (was I really gone that long??? it didn't feel like it...), the World Policy Journal looked at the impact of the global economic crisis on migration flows. The New York Times then came out with a similar article last week stating that migration flows to the United States from Mexico have dropped significantly with fewer jobs available on the market.

Some more conservative faith voices have called for the application of family values to the immigration issue. And a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center shows that low-income Latinos are increasingly the targets of crime and abuse.

So...while that is not all the news that was out there, it highlights a few of the diverse stories that are hitting the airwaves. I'll try not to get so behind over the coming weeks. However, due to the Memorial Day, next week's update will be on Tuesday.

Cheers, friends!

Last Week (and the last few weeks): In Our Community

So after a few weeks absence, I'm finally back in town and ready to give you all an immigration news update. A lot has been going on over the last few weeks, so rather than keep it just at last week, I'm going to cover the major points of the weeks I was gone as well. We'll go in reverse chronological order, though this may actually take two entries to complete.

Last week, major immigration news revolved around the one-year anniversary of the immigration raid on the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa. As I've already blogged, groups around the country held commemorative events, linking the destruction of Postville to the current need for comprehensive immigration reform. Following that, twenty former workers of the Agriprocessors Inc. plant received U visas, or visas which offer legal status to immigrants who are/have been victims of crime. The government finally ruled that many of the Agriprocessor workers were being exploited and humiliated by their employer. The U visa will allow these individuals to live and work in the United States for four years; they can apply for permanent status on the third.

Attorney General Holder has also announced that he will soon be issuing a new decision on immigrants' legal rights and their ability to challenge adverse decisions made due to faulty lawyers. This announcement follows the previous AG Mukasey's decision to say that immigration judges to not have to reverse an order of detention or deportation, even when the decision was made due to mistakes by the immigrant's lawyer.

The AgJOBS bill was reintroduced last week by Senator Feinstein. And according to the most recent census data, the growth of the hispanic and asian population has unexpectedly declined, causing the government to re-estimate when minorities will become the majority. Debate is also growing on a proposed immigrant detention facility that would be built on tribal lands.

Going back two weeks, Representative Luis Gutierrez remains strong on pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, speaking passionately before crowds of over 700 people. As he ended his Familias Unidas Tour in Chicago on Mother's Day, he pointed to Obama's nomination speech where he said: "Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers."

Obama's budget nixed aid for jailing undocumented immigrants, a cut which would save around $400 million. The cut is an odd turn of events, given that he voted for the funding while serving in the Senate. In DHS Secretary Napolitano's unveiling of the Department's $55.1 billion budget request, she highlighted five priorities--counterterrorism, border security, enforcement of immigration laws, disaster preparedness, response, and recover, and Department unification.

Overall, Obama's budget put security first by sending more agents to the border and pouring money into upgrading points of entry. But the focus is seen by many as more of a political manuveur to give him leverage when seeking a path to legal status for the undocumented population. His budget also gives new money for immigrant integration, including money for grants for community organizations doing civics, language, naturalization, and integration related work.

As I've already posted, two weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled in the favor of immigrants being charged with identity theft, and the ABA is now moving to dismiss the guilty pleas made by the 300 immigrants apprehended in the Postville raid.

More information is coming out about the struggles of the mentally ill caught in immigration limbo, while protesters in Minnesota have taken matters into their own hands by engaging in civil disobedience in front of ICE offices to protest raids and unlawful detention. Similarly, there is a growing movement of ecumenical leaders dedicated to passing immigration reform.

Whew...no wonder I'm always busy at the office. I'll continue with this update tomorrow....

AgJobs Bill Introduced

I'm pleased to announce that Sen. Feinstein reintroduced the AgJobs bill (S. 1038) earlier today, and Reps. Berman and Putnamare expected to reintroduce the bill in the House shortly.

This bill marks important progress towards comprehensive immigration reform, while assuring equitable, fair, and just treatment for farmworkers. The bill has strong bipartisan support, and is endorsed by major labor communities, agribusiness owners, Latino leaders, civil rights organizations, and farmworkers themselves.

Farmworker Justice sent the following message around today celebrating AgJobs reintroduction:

"We’re very excited to announce that AgJOBS was reintroduced in the 111th Congress today. Sen. Feinstein (D-Cali) gave a floor speech this morning to introduce AgJOBS in the Senate (S. 1038) and Reps. Berman (D-Cali) and Putnam (R-Fl) are introducing AgJOBS in the House of Representatives. We appreciate their leadership and commitment to moving AgJOBS forward.

As many of you know, AgJOBS is a bipartisan bill that enjoys broad support in Congress. The AgJOBS compromise was carefully negotiated by the United Farm Workers and major agribusiness employers after years of intense conflict. AgJOBS is endorsed by major labor and management representatives, as well as a broad spectrum of organizations, including Latino community leaders, civil rights organizations, religious groups and farmworkers themselves.

The version of AgJOBS introduced today is substantially the same as previous versions. We will be posting an updated summary of AgJOBS on our webpage shortly.

The reintroduction of AgJOBS represents continued progress towards comprehensive immigration reform while ensuring that Congress meets the unique needs of agriculture. The status quo for farmworkers and agricultural employers is untenable and must be reformed. Over 50% of farmworkers are undocumented workers. Their wages are low and they live in the shadows of our society. We depend on these workers for the food on our tables and we need a stable labor supply. AgJOBS would provide a legal, stable labor supply and help ensure that farmworkers are treated fairly."

Postville Solidarity Leads to Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

As I posted yesterday, May 12 marked the one-year anniversary of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid resulted in 389 arrests and the downward fall of the city that was once known as the "Hometown to the World."

Today, instead of "Hometown to the World, " a billboard on the outskirts of town reads "ICE Raids Destroy Communities." The town, which before the raid had a population of about 3,000, now has less than 1,800 people in its community. The economy of Postville is tanking. The plant has declared bankruptcy. There is rising unemployment. And families affected by the raid are increasingly dependent on now almost nonexistent aid. The community is destroyed.

Yet Postville stands as a symbol of solidarity and commitment to humane immigration reform.

To remember the tragic event of the Postville raid yesterday, churches and communities across the country held prayer vigils, rang church bells and shofars, and wore red ribbons to commemorate the day and to call on Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Saint Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville led the national solidarity movement, holding a prayer vigil to commemorate the raid, followed by a "solidarity walk" to the Agriprocessors plant. More than 650 people from Postville and around the Midwest participated in the two events.

Churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois rang their church bells 389 times to honor each person that was detained during the Postville raid. The ringing began at 10 am, exactly when the raid began one year ago, and continued for an hour as they recognized each person who was seized.

Other groups called the anniversary of Postville a "Wake-up Call" to action on comprehensive immigration reform. As one pastor said, "God's people can never close their hearts to the alien, because we too were once strangers in a household to which we've been graciously welcomed...what, then, is God calling us to do? As people of faith of all kinds, we're to remember what God has so graciously done for us. We are to welcome, to embrace, to acknowledge, to treat with dignity, to even grant citizens' rights - just as God so graciously welcomed us into his community and into faith."

All-in-all, over 40 communities around the country held vigils or rallies yesterday to demonstrate their solidarity with Postville. When asked why, the answers were the same.

Justice. Equality. Community. The call to welcome the stranger.

As one religious leader in Postville said, “Everyone in Postville has suffered as a result of the raid, not just the immigrant workers. We need to end the inhumane treatment of the workers from Postville and people like them throughout the United States who have suffered the same indignities.”

Standing in Remembrance: Postville's One-Year Anniversary

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the raid in Postville, Iowa where 389 people were arrested in one of the most heavily-armed and militarized immigration raids in US history.

Postville's raid changed how the United States views immigration enforcement. One raid in one small town wrought destruction that is still evident today. There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis. The town's economy has fallen apart. Businesses have shut down. Companies have declared bankruptcy. Churches providing services have run out of funding. Kids are scared to go to school. And US citizen children have either been forced into the foster care system or exiled to a country they do not know.

Communities of faith across the country are standing in solidarity with Postville today, holding prayer vigils, ringing church bells, and wearing red ribbons to mark their remembrance of this devastating event and to call on President Obama and the US Congress to end immigration raids once and for all.

My colleague from Sojourners, Allison Johnson, is in Postville today, and has written a beautiful blog post talking about the reflections and feelings of those in Postville today. I encourage you to read her piece and to do your piece in showing solidarity to Postville.

Take action today by writing your member of Congress and let them know that you support comprehensive immigration reform.

The Ins and Outs of Immigration Reform

The Immigration Dilemma- Week 6

Over the past five weeks, I've attempted to give you all a sense of the immigration dilemma as it currently stands in the United States. Opinions are frequently polarized into pro- vs. anti- immigrant positions without taking into account the complexities of immigration law and history, the legal immigration system, and the push/pull cause and effects of undocumented migration. Without an understanding of these complexities, immigration concerns arise that have no factual basis.

The result?

A stalemate in Congress and a worsening status quo.

If this series has shown you nothing else, I hope you are now able to see how broken our current immigration system is. There are decades-long backlogs in the family immigration system. There is virtually no legal way for low-skilled workers to migrate to the United States. And while I did not get into delve into this aspect much in this series, immigrants are frequently denied due process protection and basic human rights as they are apprehended and detained.

In a society which is built upon the values of justice, opportunity, and equality, we need real solutions to the immigration dilemma that uphold these values and help us move forward together. We need comprehensive immigration reform.

Now, people always ask me "What would this look like?" or "How would you make real solutions?" So this final post I have dedicated to laying out the 8 elements that we at FCNL see as vital to creating an orderly, equitable, and efficient legal immigration system.


One. Realistic Legal Avenues for Future Migration
Recognizing the importance of immigrant labor in the U.S. economy, we believe there needs to be an expansion of legal avenues for workers (including low-skilled workers) to migrate to the United States in a safe and legal manner. These new legal avenues must protect immigrant workers’ rights, including the ability to bring their families with them, to change their place of employment, and to apply for lawful permanent status and eventual citizenship. Such avenues must be designed to meet the legitimate needs of the economy without undercutting workers already in the United States.

Two. Family Unity
Recognizing the critical role of family in the development of healthy individuals and communities, we think that immigration policies need to make family reunification a top priority, equally respecting the rights of opposite-sex and same-sex couples. Reform of the family immigration system should revise family preference categories and per-country caps, expedite the processing of visa applications caught up in lengthy visa backlogs, and remove bars to reentry and adjustment of status for those seeking to reunite with family. Family visas should not be placed in competition with employment visas.

Three. Protection for Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Other Displaced Persons
Immigration policies should support openness to refugees and those seeking asylum. We live in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world, and our planet is undergoing potentially dramatic climate changes that threaten to displace millions of people. Refugee and asylum policy should support those displaced by conflict, oppression, environmental change, natural disaster, and economic destitution.

Four. An Equitable Path to Legal Status and Eventual Citizenship
Immigration reform must create a reasonable and inclusive path for undocumented immigrants, multi-status families, refugees, and asylees to regularize their status and earn eventual citizenship. Such a program must be workable and not hindered by overly punitive criteria.

Five. Protection for All Workers
Immigration policies must ensure that all people can work with dignity. Laws governing wages, hours, health, and safety should be strictly enforced, the ability to organize protected, and remedies to redress workplace grievances made available to all workers, regardless of immigration status. Abiding by strict labor and employment laws would remove the economic incentive for employers to import undocumented and temporary labor, practices which can be used to undercut wages, job security, and working conditions for those already in the United States. Immigration policies should augment the Department of Labor’s ability to enforce labor laws, not hinder it by creating a climate of fear that employers can use to exploit immigrant workers.

Six. Immigrant Integration
Immigration policies should support communities with high concentrations of immigrants and facilitate immigrant integration. The U.S. immigration system should ensure that communities are able to welcome immigrants by providing federal support to state and local governments and organizations to provide multi-lingual and civics education, outreach, and naturalization assistance. The immigration system should also ensure that all immigrants, regardless of status, have access to social services such as health care, and that immigrants can trust local police by revoking 287(g) agreements.

Seven. Due Process Protection and Reformed Detention Policies
All persons, regardless of immigration status, should be afforded due process protection; detention policies should be reformed to uphold human and civil rights. Due process protection for immigrants includes—but is not limited to—the end of mandatory detention and expedited removal, access to legal counsel and law libraries, independent judicial review of individual circumstances before removal, and the ability to challenge detention before an independent judicial body in a timely manner. Binding detention standards should also be developed to ensure access to basic rights, such as adequate access to health care, protection from unnecessary restraints and arbitrary transfer, and access to telephones.

Eight. Enforcement Aligned with Humanitarian Values
Immigration enforcement must be realigned with humanitarian values. Over the last twenty years, immigration enforcement has been built on the concepts of fear, isolationism, and misplaced blame. This has led to the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, indiscriminate home and workplace raids, and Border Patrol activity as far as 100 miles within the U.S. border. None of these measures have effectively stemmed undocumented migration, yet such policies have desecrated sacred religious sites, violated numerous environmental laws, and induced human and civil rights abuses. Such policies should not be a part of a reformed immigration system.

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES

An Immigration Dilemma: An Introduction
A Nation of Immigrants: A History (Abridged)
Crossing the Legal Way: An Overview of the Legal Immigration System Today
Who Are "Illegals" and What Is Undocumented Migration?
Immigration Concerns: From Birthright to Welfare

Supreme Court Overrules ICE Tactics to Criminalize Undocumented Workers

In its decision yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously overruled ICE tactics of charging immigrant workers with "aggravated identity theft," a crime that has a minimum of a two-year sentence after conviction. The Court stated that to convict someone of aggravated identity theft, the government must prove that the person knew that the social security number or identification belonged to someone else.

In the case before the court, Ignacio Flora-Figuero had given his employer a fake social security in order to receive a paycheck and ensure that taxes were withdrawn to pay Social Security (even though he would never see the benefits of these payments). This is a common practice for undocumented workers who realize that to work in the formal economy, they have to obtain social security numbers (often with the encouragement or help of an employer) that are either false or belong to someone else. Most often, they do not know what the social security number is or that it could possibly belong to someone else. It's merely a number.

However, in Flora-Figuero's case, the government charged him with aggravated identity theft and misusing immigration documents. A similar charge was given to more than 300 immigrant workers swept up in the Postville, IA Agriprocessors raid. Because the identity theft charge has a minimum of a two-year jail sentence, most immigrants charged this way pled guilty to lesser charges and expedited removal from the United States. In essence, the charge was used as a weapon to threaten immigrants and to intimidate them into deportation.

The Court ruled unanimously yesterday that this was a misuse of the aggravated identity theft statute. The statute is supposed to protect people from the robbing of their personal money and property, an intent which is very different from protecting people from working under false papers. If the government wants to charge someone with identity theft, the Court said they have to be ready to prove that they knew the social security number belonged to someone else.

Alex Is on Vacation...

Hi Friends...Sorry to do this for the second week in a row. But I am on vacation this week and not in the office to do our weekly needs update. I promise I'll more than make up for it next week!

MAY DAY!

Today is MAY DAY!

May Day is known around the world as International Workers' Day and in many countries it is also when they celebrate Labor Day (unlike the US, which celebrates in September. Oddly, May Day originated in the Chicago, but the date of Labor Day changed when the Soviet Union adopted May 1st during the height of the Cold War).

Over the past several years, however, May Day has come to represent an important day in the immigrants' rights movement. Each year, hundreds of thousands people take to the streets, marching for immigrants' rights.

I've taken part in these marches for the past several years, and it is a moving experience.

The Center for Community Change (CCC) is out marching today, and asking people to text message their thoughts about why they are marching today. I've copied a few of the responses below, but to read more, go to the CCC's Fair Immigration Reform Movement blog.

I march so my aunt can be reunited with our family here. She has been waiting for a visa to come from india for over 6 years. We miss her!!!!!

So my friends won’t have to afraid anymore.Now is the time! We need immigration reform.

I am marching to fight for the rights of undocumented working families who are building the base of my hometown economy one day at a time- gracias para todos!

I walked for parents to stay united not separated like mine are.

Because of freedom, liberty, and peace! We want immigrants to feel safe and be treated equally!

Want to take part? Join the virtual movement's march!! Text Justice or Justicia to 69866 to receive action alerts and other important information.

You can also write you member on Congress to let them know why you think it's important that we pass comprehensive immigration reform this year!