What a difference a year makes
Focus shifts from marches in ’06 to votes to aid immigrant families
The main difference between May 1, 2006 and today is last year, activists used their feet, this year they’re being urged to use their votes.
"Hoy marchamos, mañana votamos" ("Today we march, tomorrow we vote"), was a chant at last year’s massive protests, said Oscar Gonzales, associate director of the United Farm Workers Foundation.
This year, the efforts are focused on "getting policy implemented to help these families," said co-worker and UFW spokeswoman Alisha Rosas.
May 1 last year was "to show that immigrants here are a sleeping giant no more," she said.
"We virtually shut down agriculture in the state of California," she said, showing "the presence and the power" of the immigrant work force and their supporters.
Or, in Gonzales’ words, "We put on the dinner table of the American public an issue, a situation that needed attention."
Even those without the legal status are being urged to effect change but in ways other than marching.
"Call your senators and urge them to move quickly to get real comprehensive reform done now!" says an official flier of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
Camila Chavez, executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation believes the change in Congress will help push immigration reform.
She said the 2006 marches were largely a reaction to the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, which was passed by the House of Representatives in December of that year.
The bill would have increased penalties for employing undocumented immigrants, made it a crime to "assist" an undocumented immigrant to remain in the United States, and implemented a slew of other measures that illegal immigrants and their advocates considered Draconian.
The bill did not pass the Senate and Chavez attributes its defeat to the strength of the 2006 marches.
Other flaws with the current immigration system, Gonzales said, are the long backlogs of unprocessed cases and the higher fees for those just beginning their application process.
Chavez said her ideal immigration reform would be similar to the blanket amnesty act of 1986, which allowed millions of undocumented immigrants to legalize their status and start on the path toward citizenship.
For Rosas, the aim is simple:
"We want immigrants to be able to live comfortably in the country that they’re living in and contributing to," she said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) recently wrote an editorial about proposed bipartisan AgJOBS legislation for immigration reform with a special emphasis on farm workers. Check out her editorial online at www.thehill.com, search word AgJOBS.