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| Obama told me immigration reform is still on the table. The GOP must bite | Obama told me immigration reform is still on the table. The GOP must bite |
| (7 months later) | |
| “We’re working hard to get it done this year.” These were but a few of the words that President Obama told me about the prospects for immigration reform, as I sat with him and others at the head table during Tuesday’s State Dinner at the White House. | “We’re working hard to get it done this year.” These were but a few of the words that President Obama told me about the prospects for immigration reform, as I sat with him and others at the head table during Tuesday’s State Dinner at the White House. |
| Certainly, it was reassuring – and he had more to say about the administration’s ongoing commitment to America’s immigrant community, despite the Republican leadership’s increasing commitment to sibling rivalry. But having weathered plenty of fights since my days as an organizer for farm workers, I’ve learned that such words of encouragement are only a small part of what a movement needs to achieve real change. | Certainly, it was reassuring – and he had more to say about the administration’s ongoing commitment to America’s immigrant community, despite the Republican leadership’s increasing commitment to sibling rivalry. But having weathered plenty of fights since my days as an organizer for farm workers, I’ve learned that such words of encouragement are only a small part of what a movement needs to achieve real change. |
| It wasn’t too long ago that I was sitting inside a tent with newfound friends, fasting on the National Mall and feeling a profound hunger – literally, yes, but also a hunger within, to see an end to the misery endured by those who come to our country to escape poverty and violence in search of a bright future for their families. Before those 22 days of fasting in November, I asked myself if I had done everything in my grasp for the more than 11.7 million immigrants aspiring to raise their hands to embrace the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Meaningful, nationwide change had escaped us, despite our best efforts, but couldn’t we do more, I asked? Can’t we still work toward that most basic hope, the American Dream? | It wasn’t too long ago that I was sitting inside a tent with newfound friends, fasting on the National Mall and feeling a profound hunger – literally, yes, but also a hunger within, to see an end to the misery endured by those who come to our country to escape poverty and violence in search of a bright future for their families. Before those 22 days of fasting in November, I asked myself if I had done everything in my grasp for the more than 11.7 million immigrants aspiring to raise their hands to embrace the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Meaningful, nationwide change had escaped us, despite our best efforts, but couldn’t we do more, I asked? Can’t we still work toward that most basic hope, the American Dream? |
| The answer was yes. And still today, even after a week in which those millions had to cope with yet another political play from the House majority, the answer remains the same: There is more work to be done, and there is a majority of Americans who want and will continue to want a path to citizenship. | The answer was yes. And still today, even after a week in which those millions had to cope with yet another political play from the House majority, the answer remains the same: There is more work to be done, and there is a majority of Americans who want and will continue to want a path to citizenship. |
| Why not just give up? Because Speaker John Boehner and Co may continue their ruse of dancing around the timing for reform while feeling the pull of the far right of their party, but there are real people across this land, anxiously holding on to hope, their loved ones and their faith as they endure the tragedies under the shadows - the secrecy and the sorrow – of a truly inhumane US immigration system. | Why not just give up? Because Speaker John Boehner and Co may continue their ruse of dancing around the timing for reform while feeling the pull of the far right of their party, but there are real people across this land, anxiously holding on to hope, their loved ones and their faith as they endure the tragedies under the shadows - the secrecy and the sorrow – of a truly inhumane US immigration system. |
| We’ve learned from Scripture – as well as acts of courage from brave men like Gandhi, Dr. King and my dear departed friend Cesar Chavez – that every individual has a moral obligation to our brethren in struggle. Some of our congressional leaders may not fully understand their moral obligation to put an end to the living and breathing immigration crisis, but it is for all of us who support reform to heed our own conscience – to refuse to ignore reality. | We’ve learned from Scripture – as well as acts of courage from brave men like Gandhi, Dr. King and my dear departed friend Cesar Chavez – that every individual has a moral obligation to our brethren in struggle. Some of our congressional leaders may not fully understand their moral obligation to put an end to the living and breathing immigration crisis, but it is for all of us who support reform to heed our own conscience – to refuse to ignore reality. |
| Indeed, we are at crossroads. Right now, we can allow excuses and political divisions within the Republican Party to desperately divide or silence us, or we can take the high road. | Indeed, we are at crossroads. Right now, we can allow excuses and political divisions within the Republican Party to desperately divide or silence us, or we can take the high road. |
| We choose the high road – again, quite literally. Along with my friends at “Fast for Families”, who fasted with me at the doorsteps of the Capitol and represent the breadth of diversity behind the call for immigration reform and citizenship, we’re taking to the road across more than 100 congressional districts. Members of Congress, from the west coast to the southwest and beyond, will hear more than the chatter of support for reform – more than even the support President Obama voiced to me. Over the next six weeks, they will see and listen to what they heard in Washington last November. They will see and listen to it in their own districts and from their own constituents, made up of their neighbors, churchgoers, small business owners, youth activists and many more. | We choose the high road – again, quite literally. Along with my friends at “Fast for Families”, who fasted with me at the doorsteps of the Capitol and represent the breadth of diversity behind the call for immigration reform and citizenship, we’re taking to the road across more than 100 congressional districts. Members of Congress, from the west coast to the southwest and beyond, will hear more than the chatter of support for reform – more than even the support President Obama voiced to me. Over the next six weeks, they will see and listen to what they heard in Washington last November. They will see and listen to it in their own districts and from their own constituents, made up of their neighbors, churchgoers, small business owners, youth activists and many more. |
| If some of the Republican leadership and members of the House are counting on us to forget, to stop the pressure or compromise on our nation’s fundamental tradition to integrate immigrants into our democracy as American citizens, their bets are way off. No one who supports immigration reform is stuck on any given process, whether we’re talking about several piecemeal solutions à la Sen Marco Rubio’s suggestion, or even about conference on legislation. We’re past that. America just wants Congress to pass real, common-sense immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship. The votes are there; now it’s just a matter of getting past the back-and-forth politicking on the how and finally getting to the vote. | If some of the Republican leadership and members of the House are counting on us to forget, to stop the pressure or compromise on our nation’s fundamental tradition to integrate immigrants into our democracy as American citizens, their bets are way off. No one who supports immigration reform is stuck on any given process, whether we’re talking about several piecemeal solutions à la Sen Marco Rubio’s suggestion, or even about conference on legislation. We’re past that. America just wants Congress to pass real, common-sense immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship. The votes are there; now it’s just a matter of getting past the back-and-forth politicking on the how and finally getting to the vote. |
| As President Obama said during a speech to House Democrats this morning, we must not forget “that there are people behind the statistics, that there are lives that are being impacted.” | As President Obama said during a speech to House Democrats this morning, we must not forget “that there are people behind the statistics, that there are lives that are being impacted.” |
| Having sat with those people for decades and seen their sorrow first-hand, over and over, I know that we must not forget how this fight began – nor may we let this opportunity pass. And I’m confident that, before too long, the Speaker of the House and his colleagues will follow their moral compass and answer our brethren’s hunger for immigration reform. | Having sat with those people for decades and seen their sorrow first-hand, over and over, I know that we must not forget how this fight began – nor may we let this opportunity pass. And I’m confident that, before too long, the Speaker of the House and his colleagues will follow their moral compass and answer our brethren’s hunger for immigration reform. |
| But the question remains: when? We’ll ask that question, and plenty more, at every stop in our journey into more the districts. Because the answer to that question should be – and will be –right now. |