Blazing The Path To Immigration Reform

http://progressillinois.com/2008/12/...gration-reform

by Angela Caputo on December 08, 2008 - 10:25am

Illinois immigrants went to the polls this fall and supported in large numbers candidates who promised to deliver on much-needed national immigration reforms. On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 came together to let incoming members of Congress and the White House know they’re ready to see some action soon.

Sometime in the next week, President-elected Barack Obama will sit down with U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Chicago), one of the nation’s most ardent immigrant reform activists. Until Obama is sworn into the White House and the new Congress convenes, Gutierrez tells us he isn’t expecting many details to emerge on how the administration will pursue the reforms.

As he readies for his meeting with Obama, the Illinois congressman organized a standing room-only summit at a church on Chicago’s Near West Side this weekend to show the incoming administration that he represents the voice of millions.

If there’s one thing he’s learned during his 23-year political career, Gutierrez tells us, it’s this: “If (elected officials) look to their left and look to their right and they see millions of people organized … it’s easier to get things done.”

Over the next few months, Gutierrez is planning similar rallies in six other states. He’s counting on Latino ministers to help mobilize supporters.

At the Chicago rally, a coalition of nearly three dozen Illinois ministers signed an open letter to the president-elect asking him to act quickly in bringing calm to the nation’s immigrants. The plea specifically focused on those who live in fear that their parents, children, or spouses will be swept up in an Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raid. Here’s an excerpt from their plea:

When our current approaches leave us afraid to send our children to school, go to the grocery store, talk to the police in an emergency, or even answer a knock at the door, regardless of the nature of their immigration status, we must speak up [...]

We urge an end to the raids that divide and terrorize families and support a comprehensive reform that would prioritize family unity … We must effectively enforce our borders and restore the rule of law in this country, but we must also look with compassion upon the immigrants who are here.

At a pre-Election Day rally organized by the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, hundreds carried signs and cheered for a 100-day moratorium on the raids under an Obama administration.

We pressed Gutierrez about whether he’ll take that or any other specific demands to the table of the forthcoming meeting. In short, he said no.

“We want him to lead,” Gutierrez tells us. “We want to be allies.”

In the end, though, he expects the administration to advance comprehensive immigrant reform. For Gutierrez, that means “a pathway to legalization.” “For all those who are here and have not violated any law aside from their immigration status,” he says, “you pay a fine … go to (language and citizenship) classes … and you are on a pathway to stay in this country.”

comforting!

Indeed! askldfjsd

I.D.K, but what if we get CIR and Dream the same year?

Will Rep Gutierrez bring up Dream Act during his meeting with the President-Elect? Can we contact him to do that?

Great idea ......

Here is the link to his website where you can email him!

http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/singl...px?newsid=1262