SAN JUAN — Martha Sánchez was trying to connect with about 1,6 million people, mostly immigrants, who were attending listening parties all over the U.S. to hear the congressman Luis Gutierrez’s speech about immigration reform.
According to Reform Immigration For America (RI4A), there were 16,000 meetings participating at the same time with close to 100 people in average on each of them. Gutiérrez (D-Illinois) is planning to introduce an immigration bill that can help more than 12 million undocumented immigrants to apply later for permanent immigrant status and citizenship.
Guadalupe Grey, from Álamo, Texas, says that this is the first time she participate in a meeting for an immigration reform. “I have my documents, but I would like an immigration reform for all those people who are in big need”.
Grey is not a member of La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), but she came anyway. More than 115 immigrants from all over the Valley were present at the LUPE’s office in San Juan to hear the conference. LUPE were expecting to have more than 200 people in the four offices.
“They are separating the families”, Grey says in regard to the immigration raids that have been hitting the Latino neighborhoods over the last two years.
“You are making history”, says Sanchez to the 115 people who attended the teleconference and signed a letter of support to the immigration reform. At the same time, thousands of meetings were taking place all over the U.S.
Sánchez asks the LUPE members to call and send messages to the Texas’s senators and Valley’s representatives.
The LUPE’s organizer explains that December, January and February will be months of intense activism to support the immigration bill. The window of opportunity is short and Gutiérrez has said that it will be imperative to get the bill approved at the U.S. Congress before March 2010.
