The Moving Stake

By Elvira Arellano

Someone once said that politics is war without bloodshed. Sometimes I think the Latino community is in a war – but doesn’t recognize it and therefore doesn’t fight. We have never won a battle we didn’t fight!

My son Saulito is in Chicago and I am very proud to see his face on the news even here in Mexico, as he helps to bring other U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents to the White House on July 28^th to meet with the President. Saulito is also going to my church’s summer camp in Chicago. He tells me that a favorite game of the children is a tug of war with a big dog. The dog grabs one end of the rope with his teeth and the children pull on the other end. There is a stake in the middle so you can see who is winning.

We are all watching to see what the courts will do with the Arizona law now that Obama has joined in the law suit to stop it. But meanwhile, deportations and separations of families are continuing to increase and are occurring at a much greater pace than under the Bush administration.

In this tug of war, Obama is the stake, we are the children and the republicans are the big dog. Our problem is that the stake is moving closer to the dog.

While Obama says he is for comprehensive immigration reform, he is deporting more people than ever before. While he is against the Arizona law which would allow local police to check papers and treat our people as criminals, he is also making agreements with local law enforcement in Arizona and across the country to get them to “cooperate” in searching out and turning over people without papers to immigration – people with no criminal records.

In his first year and a half in office, the stake has moved towards the dog and Obama is planning to move even further in that direction. He and the democrats are campaigning saying that they have increased enforcement and become more efficient in separating the families that God has put together.

Of course, that is not what we were promised when the Latino community voted for Obama. Obama did not just promise to support the compromise of immigration reform, he promised to end the separation of families and to stop terrorizing our children.

We are in a tug of war and we are coming to a very important time in November. The democrats want to win the congressional elections to stay in power. They want our votes. So they are blaming the republicans for their failure to fix the broken law – and they are at the same time telling the racists that they are enforcing the broken law more effectively than the republicans did.

The stake is moving and the dog of racism is winning. Saulito says we need more children on the other end and that is why he is organizing the march of the children on July 28^th. Our message must be clear. If democrats in the congress want our vote, than the congress must pass, in September, the immigration reform bill that has been introduced in Congress by the Latino Caucus and over 100 other congressmen. And the President must put a moratorium on deportations that separate families. If the House of Representatives passes a bill, and the President stops separating U.S. citizen mixed status families, than we will know that it is the Republicans in the Senate who are holding us back and we will vote in all of our numbers for the democrats. That is the only chance the democrats have of getting our votes

We reject moving the stake. Passing the dream act, or even the dream act and ag jobs without a moratorium on deportations means the deportations and the local police cooperation programs like 287g will continue to increase. Those who support this idea are moving the stake towards the dog. The democrats are pushing this idea because they think we will be quiet if a few people are legalized and they will still be able to tell the racists that they are deporting more people than the republicans did. Obama is already moving the stake. He doesn’t need our help!

We are just asking the President and the Democrats to stop moving the stake towards the dog and to keep the stake in the same place it was when they asked for our votes. They need to show us and the country that they are serious about keeping their promise if they want our votes. Join Saulito in Washington D.C. in front of the white house on July 28^th – we need more children on our end of the rope! To join Saulito go to www.familialatinaunida.org.

JOIN CHILDREN’S MARCH ON WHITE HOUSE: Stop the Separation of Our Families!

For the first 100 days of the Obama Administration, the Familias Unidas campaign together with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus held mass meetings in 23 cities across the nation. U.S citizens testified about the destruction of their families by our broken immigration laws, thousands signed petitions to the President and many tears were shed, many prayers were prayed, as the suffering of our community was put before the President to remind him of his promise to the Latino community.

This battle comes down to one man – President Obama – who has the capacity AND the moral obligation to provide temporary relief to millions of our undocumented parents, workers, neighbors and to stop the racial profiling programs that ICE runs through local law enforcement. We don’t need Congress to solve this crisis, we need one President to fulfill his promises.

The President has ignored our suffering. We will give him one last chance.

On July 28^th,  Familia Latina Unida will join with organizations and families across the nation to bring 500 U.S. citizen children and young people to the White House.

We will gather in front of the White House at 4 P.M. on Wednesday, July 28^th and then march to a nearby Church for a town hall meeting at 7:00 P.M. to which we are inviting President Obama and his family.

These U.S. citizen children and young people have a right to an explanation and to action on their behalf.

We are asking your organization, your church or you as an individual to co-sponsor and support this effort by our children and our young people. There are several things that the children and young people are asking us to do:

1. 1. Help organize Family delegations to visit your congressman. Ask your congressman to sign a letter asking President Obama to place a moratorium on deportations until comprehensive immigration reform can be passed and demanding that the President respect and meet with the children and young people in Washington on July 28^th.
2. 2. Help organize a family delegation to visit the Mayor of your city and urge the Mayor to support the trip to Washington and to sign a letter asking President Obama to place a moratorium on deportations until comprehensive immigration reform can be passed and demanding that the President respect and meet with the children and young people in Washington on July 28^th
3. 3. Help organize a street collection Fundraising Day to raise money to send a delegation from your city to Washington D.C. on July 28^th..
4. 4. Send one or more family representatives to D.C. on July 28^th

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Please contact us quickly if you, your church or your organization will join us in this second round of the Familias Unidas campaign. We must not become discouraged. The darkest hour comes just before dawn and what God has joined together, no man, and no government, must be allowed to separate.

Contact us at info@familialatinaunida.org or call us at 773.847.7282

For more information, see our website at www.familialatinaunid.org

Statement of Emma Lozano, Co-Chair, Familia Latina Unida / Sin Fronteras

April 16^th National May Day Press Conference

As you have heard, on May 1st we will march again and we will march with more unity than ever before. Each week I look at the families in my church – those already separated and those who live in fear.

Like other churches, each week new people show up at our doors, desperate for help. A woman going into labor whose husband has been arrested in their home, taken away in his underwear in front of his children.

A mother who has given her daughter to this country in Iraq and now prays every day with her U.S. citizen son for her husband to be able to stay with them. It is happening everywhere – and we are angry.

This is not what Obama and the democrats promised. It is worse than under Bush. And they are still making promises and still breaking them. And so we will march again but this time it is different.

The specter of Arizona, where AN ARMY of Obama’s ICE agent joined with local racist Gestapo to terrorize a whole state, is haunting this nation. That is not the future the people of this nation chose.

We demand that legislation be introduced in the Senate by April 30 and scheduled for passage in the Senate and House by June 15th. We demand a moratorium on 287g programs and the separation of families by April 30^th.

If these things do not happen by April 30^th, then on May 1^st , Obama and the Democratic leadership will see a million people across this nation walking away from them. And you will see thousands beginning civil disobedience as we will begin here in Chicago in a few hours.

Through our faith, we are already united, already one. Broken promises and broken laws cannot separate us, for what God has put together, no man can separate.

Familias Unidas, families and churches, will march from Providence Rhode Island to Houston Texas, from Orlando Florida to San Jose California, from Charleston South Carolina to Detroit Michigan.

Our message is clear: no legalization, no reelection. No moratorium, no peace. We are not a little loud tea party, President Obama, tearing apart this nation with hate – we are a five course Banquet of faith, hard work and family. We are millions!

We are one. Vamos Todos al Banquete!

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE MARCH 21ST MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Whereas, The Mayor and City Council of Chicago have gone on record calling for an immediate moratorium on raids, deportations and separation of families until comprehensive immigration reform in passed;

And Whereas, the Mayor and City Council of Chicago have also gone on record calling for immediate consideration and passage of comprehensive immigration reform;

Mobilization to Washington, D.C. (March 21, 2010)

We are here to say to Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed and Dick Durbin that you have 30 days to keep your promise to the Latino community – or we will leave you where we found you when we voted you into office. Friends keep promises. Are you our friends?