CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As the rain came down at Union Park early Monday, dozens of immigrants’ rights advocates were asked if they still planned to make their annual May Day March.
“We’re marching. That’s the commitment. Every May 1 we’ve been here, so that’s the commitment,” said Saul Arellano. “We have to continue the fight for them, because the raids and the deportations do not cease, do not stop, and so must the movement not stop. We continue.”
Arellano not only made the full march to the Federal Building in the Loop, but he was one of three authors of a letter that he intended to hand deliver to U.S. senators from Illinois. The letter called for more inclusive immigration reform.
“Unfortunately, they did not let us go into Dick Durbin’s office, but Tammy Duckworth did receive us — her staff — and so we were able to deliver to the letter to them, and we also asked one of the staffers with Tammy Duckworth if they could please give it to Dick Durbin, and they said they would,” he said.
The letter pleaded for increased protections and expedited avenues toward citizenship not only for recent asylum seekers, but for those who have already been raising families, working and paying taxes in this country for decades.
“It’s them who now deserve to get immigration reform. I have a mother, my brother and my step-dad who, at any moment, can get deported, and so we want to keep fighting for them,” he said.
On Sunday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and admitted the city is overwhelmed with the more than 8,000 migrants received since August 2022.
Among those marching was Melany Laplander, with the Organization Latino, and she responded to questions about that letter.
“I don’t have much to say to that, other than Chicago welcomes all immigrants,” she said. “This is a sanctuary city, so immigrants are welcome here. Shame on Florida, and shame on Texas for treating our undocumented the way they are.”
Laplander, Arellano, and others hoped that H.R. 1511, a bill was introduced to the U.S. Congress in March 2023, could help bring about the immigration reform they desire. The bill seeks to amend a section of the immigration act of 1929, which provides permanent residency benefits to long-term residents of the United States.
H.R. 1511 seeks to change the definition of “long-term residency as “entering the country prior to 1972,” to language that would define long-term residency as entering the U.S. “seven years before the application date.”
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