Even when political prospects look grim, we’ll never stop fighting for immigration reform
Just over three years ago, I was in Washington to meet with our elected leaders about immigration and the need for reform. I was 19 years old, having just finished my first year in college, and cautiously optimistic that we had really started something. There were hundreds of us. We couldn’t be ignored.
Mea culpa. Things didn’t go according to plan.
No overarching immigration reform. No pathway to citizenship for those covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as Dreamers. No scaling back of the militarization of the southern border. But seeds were planted.
I’m now 21 and completing my final year at the University of Texas at Austin. My focus has always been public policy and Mexican-American studies, but the people I met and the conversations and debates I had back in 2019 never left me.
As luck — or more likely poor federal policy — would have it, a lobbying weekend sponsored by the Quakers’ Friends Committee on National Legislation that I joined this spring was once again immigration focused. That’s how I found myself back in DC last month.
I was born and raised in Texas, but that is not true of my entire extended family. While I have never had to worry about a knock at the door in the middle of the night, several of my loved ones do. That is a dreadful feeling. And all too common.
In fact, my biggest nightmare became reality in 2019, when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement conducted its largest North Texas raid in a decade. That night I stood in solidarity with families who waited hours for the release of their loved ones. I saw little children still in school uniforms waiting for parents whose biggest “crime” was going to work to provide for their families.
That kind of fear and anxiety is what my group and I hoped to impart on Sen. John Cornyn and his staff.
Our message was simple but powerful: A pathway to citizenship is the only sound economical and moral decision the country can make. Remember that while the pandemic was raging out of control, some five million workers in the country illegally showed up to work — risking their lives and the wellbeing of their families — to make sure our country stayed afloat.
As history shows, those who control the purse strings in Washington would probably like more of our money to spend. They should know if Dreamers and other immigrants were granted citizenship, 400,000 jobs would be created, about $1.7 trillion would be added to the economy, and billions more would be paid into federal and state treasuries.
These are our friends, neighbors and often family members. They are not strangers looking to get free money. Many are fleeing repressive regimes in search of freedom and a better life for their families. This is on display every day in Ukraine. In countless ways, helping these people means helping the United States. They love and embrace our country. We should embrace them back.
Luckily, during our meeting, there was universal agreement that the system is broken and badly needs reform. These are the glimmers of hope I am holding onto. We take agreement and progress where we find it.
Yes, three years later the fight goes on. But since 2019, inch by brutal inch, there have been more victories than defeats. I saw familiar faces last month. The turnout was bigger, even on the tail end of the pandemic.
Once again, the seeds have been sown. I hope if I find myself back in D.C. three years from now, we are not talking about immigration. But our leaders should know that we — like immigrants — are not going away. We won’t be ignored.
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 7:04 AM.