By Jorge Luis Sierra
PHARR — Dozens of members of ARISE and LUPE marched this Tuesday in Las Milpas, a border community, to support a comprehensive immigration reform to be approved by the U.S. Congress.
More than 50 community members and organizers participated a rally at Junior’s supermarket in Pharr, marched in Cage Boulevard and ended the demonstration at the Cabrini Church.
“We want an immigration reform for our brothers who are here to be able to work and have rights, and for them to have their families united, because they are separating the parents from their children” said Juanita Martínez, ARISE coordinator in Las Milpas, in regard to the immigration raids which have been taken place over the last years.
This march was part of a nation-wide campaign to support a national coalition of grass-roots organizations who are now in Washington, D.C., doing lobby for a comprehensive immigration reform that allows 12 million undocumented immigrants to become legal residents and apply for citizenship.
“We are supporting our leaders who went to Washington, D.C.,” Martinez said. She also said that ARISE members from Las Milpas, South Texas and Alamo, along as members of La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) attended the vigil.
Nazaria García, community organizer for ARISE, said that “a lot of immigrants want to become part of this society and contribute to it building a strong country, a better country.” García showed a list of 32 signatures of a petition to members of the US Congress to approve the immigration reform as soon as possible.
Ramona Casas, one of the ARISE leaders, said that they trust president Barack Obama’s willingness to support an immigration reform this year.
“We know he has a heavy agenda with the health reform and the economy, but that was his promise in his political platform, so we are asking him not to let us down, that he can be able to hear and to fulfill his promises”, Casas said.
