6-7-06 - There has been a new call to mobilize and organize.
Due to the current bill coming out of Congress that appears to be in violation of most principles that those of us who marched on April 29, and May 1st 2006 for immigration reform, and that people of faith throughout America have supported. A new, larger march has been proposed.
The direction of the immigration debate in congress has taken to attaching amendments that would bring militarization to the border closer to reality.
In addition the Senate is going against the ideas of America's founding fathers. In their wisdom the country's founders dismissed the notion when they wrote our Constitution of forcing the then new nation to adopt an official language. Succeeding governments have held this precedent-setting decision as an inviolate principle that acts to unify rather than divide the nation.
Contrary to the ethnic myths currently being promoted by the opponents of immigration reform. Our nation has always been comprised by a richly textured diversity of peoples. It was to safeguard and encourage this diversity that the founders opted for tolerance from the start.
Quite unrealistically the proposed bill currently making its way thru Congress would only allow six months for the estimated 12 million immigrants to apply for their residential status. Certain aspects of the bill would make up to 4 million others ineligible. This is outrageously impractical.
It's time that we as Americans stand up for the values and principles we believe in even if this means that we must defer passage of an immigration bill until the next Congress.
More moderate views on the matter of migration policy should be at the forefront. Those who do so include the likes of President George W. Bush and Senators John McCain and Mel Martínez. Hopes for a bipartisan fair and just deal must not be lost, even if there will likely be no such deal at all during the current session of Congress.
Therefore I support the efforts to bring the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC),WCVI members and allies, together with the Southwest Voter Registration Project, Labor council for Latin American Advancement, and the Hispanic Federation to oppose the current bills in the Senate and House. This covers California and Texas and we must reach out to the rest of the grassroots and community organizations across America. We should also concentrate efforts on voter registration and citizenship drives. The future belongs to those who defend the nation's founding principles of tolerance, equality and justice for all, regardless of whether they are rich or poor or where they came from.
We can turn the hard-pressed hopes and dreams of today's immigrant generation and that of their children into the votes and political victories that will make for a greater and more democratic America. We can restore the voice of all the people to our government. We should repudiate government by and for the few and support a government of the people, by all the people. We will stand by the hard-earned principles won by our predecessors in the course of a long history of civil rights struggles. We will stand ready to join forces with all freedom-loving peoples to renounce all forms of second-class citizenship for any and all Americans, whether new or old. We demand equal rights; we demand them now.
And in doing so, a new march has been called for to march on Washington, D.C. On September 3, 2006. The Sunday before labor day. For it is today's immigrants who's hard work has built America strong. It will surely be the largest in American history with citizens participating from throughout America. In addition, a National Congress of Latino organizations and Allies should be held to establish a united front on this issue within the next three months and before the official campaign season begins after Labor Day.
It's time to mobilize and organize, to fight for our and everyone's rights. If you want to join this call for a new and better America, then join us. America is made better when we make her live up to her ideals that all men and women are created equal, with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Please forward this email to your friends, forward text messages, make phone calls, help make a difference.
Hasta La Victoria! Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sergio Garcia