Mall Immigration Rally Brings Out 180,000

Mall Immigration Rally Brings Out 180,000
By U.S. Rep. James Moran

Rallies held across the country are heralding in a new era for civil rights in our country. Immigration reform is the topic of the day here in the U.S. In Los Angelos, Detroit, Houston, Columbia, New York, Washington D.C. and other U.S. cities large and small, the men and women who service our cars, pick our crops, prepare our food, care for our lawns and clean our office buildings have united, declaring they are not criminals and are only interested in working hard and becoming a part of the American dream.

On the National Mall, I addressed Tuesday's rally along with Senator Kennedy and Maryland Congressman Al Wynn. An exuberant, American flag waving, Pledge of Allegiance singing crowd, the audience was filled with families who filed orderly to the stage on 7th Street. As peaceful a group as I have every witnessed in such large numbers, the thousands of onlookers cheered speakers including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition offering a message of "Si se puede" meaning "Yes, we can" in both English and Spanish.

The trigger for this outpouring of civil protest was a bill passed by the House of Representatives essentially making hardworking immigrants felons and punishing any person or organization that provides these people support of any kind including food, shelter or education. As Senator Hilary Clinton so aptly said, this bill would make our good lord and savior Jesus Christ a felon.

I think it is pretty clear to every American that our immigration system is broken and needs major repair. The debate has come down to those who want to build fences and rely on law enforcement punishment alone to fix the problem, and those who believe a more comprehensive approach that melds efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration with a plan to give the approximately 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants currently within our borders temporary visas and a path to citizenship.

In my view, it would not only be impossible, but immoral to spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to track down and uproot 11 million plus people, most of whom contribute to our society and work to make our economy stronger. The comprehensive immigration reform bill being advanced by Senators Kennedy and McCain is a good proposal and deserves to be the model for whatever Congress decides to pass. It creates a guest worker visa program that provides a route to earned citizenship.

The nationwide rallies have shifted debate on a contentious issue in a way seldom seem. A continued drumbeat may well achieve the marchers' ultimate goal, political respect and an understanding from the American people that immigrants are an integral part of the fabric of our society, a part that is the cornerstone of who we are as a nation.

http://www.moran.house.gov/statements2.cfm?id=524