Immigrants Speak up to Obama on Immigration
By Kenneth Kim
New America Media
Mar 20, 2009
LOS ANGELES – Fearing
immigration reform was not on his agenda, dozens of immigrant rights
activists Thursday participated in a rally outside the public school, as
President Barack Obama held the second of two town hall meetings during
his two-day trip to Southern California.
While those who were lucky
enough to secure tickets to the event waited patiently in line to enter
the gymnasium at Miguel Contreras Learning Center, about 200 people,
mostly Hispanics, lined up on Third Avenue at Lucas Street, chanting and
waving signs and banners that read “Obama Count Us Too!” “Legalization,
Now,” and “We Are Not Criminals.”
The protesters at the
rally, organized by Union Del Barrio and the Coalition for Humane
Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), were demanding that the
president issue an executive order to end Immigration and Customs
Enforcement raids and focus his efforts on formulating a plan to
legalize the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the
country.
Kevin Prada, 12, who was
born in the United States, spoke at the rally about his loneliness and
the hardship he has had to endure since his father’s deportation in
2007. Vicky Marquez talked about the emotional anguish she has been
suffering for the last 13 years because she has not been able to see her
children, living in her native El Salvador.
With Obama’s focus being
on pulling the country out of the recession, ending the Iraq war and
reforming health care, many immigrant rights activists worry that the
new administration would be less likely to come up with a proposal any
time soon to overhaul immigration policies, unless they put pressure on
him.
“It isn’t a protest,”
asserted Nativo Lopez, state and national president of the
Mexican-American Political Association. “It’s a welcoming, and to remind
him we’re still here.”
As the immigrants’ rights
activists had predicted, during the more than an hour-long town hall
event, Obama didn’t make any reference to the thorny issue of
immigration.
After Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger introduced him, Obama walked over to the crowd of more
than 1,000, only to be greeted like a rock star at a mega concert.
Just as he did the day
before at a town hall in Orange County, the president talked about his
economic stimulus packages and his administration’s effort to reform
education and health care.
He talked about his
Recovery Act, the economic crisis, the peril created by a cyclical
“burst and bust” economy and his proposed budget. And he didn’t forget
to touch upon his message of hope that won him the presidency.
“I know how tough times
are in Los Angeles, in California, but also all across the country,”
Obama said. “Here is what I want you to remember though. We are going to
meet these challenges. I promise you this. There will be brighter days
ahead.”
As if to hammer home that
point, the president announced tax credits for new homebuyers that will
kick in this year. He also said California will receive $145 million
from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist
homeowners to refinance their loans and provide mortgage assistance to
low- and middle-income families.
The mood of the few who
were inside the auditorium was clearly different from the rally
participants outside. One woman in the audience, clearly overwhelmed by
the occasion, asked the president how to make life healthier. An old man
sitting in a wheelchair asked him what was the administration’s policy
on disabled people.
A woman, who identified
herself as a “mixed-race individual,” asked how California's household
incomes don't go as far as incomes do in other states. Could Obama do
anything to change this? Three more people had their chance to lobby
questions at him before 8-year-old Ethan Lopez was handed the mike. How,
he asked the president, could he keep teachers from getting laid off?
The fact that Obama
skirted the issue of immigration reform at the meeting didn’t seem to
bother the city’s elected officials, who have been publicly supporting
it. Asked whether Obama should have brought up the immigration issue,
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said talking about the issues
wasn’t the purpose of Obama’s trip.
“Look, the purpose of the
president’s journey across the country was really to make a case for the
stimulus package and the recovery efforts,” defended Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa after the event. “I think he accomplished that.
“The president has made a
commitment to start that conversation on immigration reform this year,
and he’s going to,” said Eric Garcetti, president of the Los Angeles
City Council, who said he had just returned from Washington, D.C. after
meeting with the president’s top advisors on immigration.
But immigrant rights
activist were unconvinced. “I’m really disappointed,” said Angelica
Salas, executive director of CHIRLA.
Salas noted that Obama not
mentioning immigration reform in a city where 46 percent of the
population are immigrants indicated that immigration activists need to
not let up on the pressure.
They are planning a series
of marches in the next several weeks that will end May 1.
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