DEARBORN — People across the state will participate in a national march scheduled to take place in Washington D.C. Wednesday, April 10. It’s being held in support of comprehensive immigration reform measures recently introduced, and to speak out against current immigration laws that seperate familes.  

Efforts to get 250 Michigan families to attend are underway. Buses will be available in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo and Lansing for people who want to travel to the nation’s capitol, and take part in it with coalitions from six other states. 

The march, Keep Families Together was announced Monday at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services’ office here. The Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform, ACCESS, the Detroit AFL-CIO, UAW and elected officials joined immigrant families for the announcement. 

“This historic march for immigration reform is the next step in the labor movement’s fight for a just society,” said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada. “We must mobilize with great moral urgency to change the laws that stand between mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. Working families are the backbone of the labor movement and we must work to keep our families safe and whole.” 

Those who have been affected by current immigration laws will lead the march, and share their stories. To become a volunteer, help organize the trip, or find out how to register  contact raquel.garcia.andersen@gmail.com or call 313.451.2768. 

“We’re marching for immigration reform because the future of our families and our communities depends on it,” said Max Rodriguez, who’s attending the march.  “This is not an abstract issue—our families matter, and we deserve full human dignity. A path to citizenship and full immigration reform is the only way.” 

The framework for immigration reform was also announced Monday by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that includes Charles E. Schumer of New York; John McCain of Arizona; Richard J. Durbin of Illinois; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Robert Menendez of New Jersey; Marco Rubio of Florida; Michael Bennet of Colorado and Jeff Flake of Arizona. 

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan applauded republicans for working with members of his party to help create immigration reform.  

“Thanks to the United States Senate and eight of its members, Democrats and Republicans have come together with a set of principles overhauling and creating a pathway for citizenship in this country for 11 million undocumented immigrants,” Conyers said.  

As the framework for comprehensive immigration reform was introduced this week, Metro Detroiters announced a march to Washington D.C. in support of the new measures. PHOTO: Natasha Dado/TAAN

President Obama addressed the nation on his plans for immigration reform in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday.  Estrada says people from around the country traveled there at their own expense to hear the  speech. 

President Obama’s immigration reform proposal has four parts:  

• First, continue to strengthen the nation’s borders 

• Second, crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers 

• Third, hold undocumented immigrants accountable before they can earn their citizenship; this means requiring undocumented workers to pay their taxes and a penalty, move to the back of a line, learn English, and pass background checks

• Fourth, streamline the legal immigration system for families, workers, and employers 

Michigan’s immigrant advocates  welcomed President Obama’s proposed immigration reform as a monumental step in the right direction and continued to stress the urgency to heal and reunite families through reform that includes citizenship. Reactions in Michigan and Las Vegas stressed that the campaign to bring justice to immigrant families has just begun. 

“I felt privileged and amazed to be on stage with farm-workers and families, all fighting for our communities,” said Sergio Martinez, a DREAM youth and AIR volunteer organizer, who traveled to Nevada from Michigan to hear the president’s speech.  

“The President was clear about the great moral urgency for immigration reform, and we thank him for moving the country forward.  However, we still need to ensure that family members who’ve been separated or deported are able to be reunited.” 

There are reportedly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

A vast majority of them face the threat of deportation and being separated from their families. The current immigration system separates hundreds of thousands of families through polices that haven’t been updated in decades. The 2012 election sent a strong message that immigrant communities and others want the system fixed. 

Current laws not only deport undocumented immigrants, leaving others at risk of deportation, living on the shadows, vulnerable to abuse because they lack documentation, but also unable to fully participate in a country they help to build.   

“They (immigrants) helped build this country we need to ensure that there is equal opportunity for all,” said State Rep. George Darany (D-Dearborn).  

The White House has acknowledged that it is just not practical to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.  The President’s proposal provides undocumented immigrants a legal way to earn citizenship that will encourage them to come out of the shadows so they can pay their taxes and play by the same rules as everyone else.  Immigrants living here illegally must be held responsible for their actions by passing national security and criminal background checks, paying taxes and a penalty, going to the back of the line, and learning English before they can earn their citizenship. According to the proposal there will be no uncertainty about their ability to become U.S. citizens if they meet these eligibility criteria. The proposal will also stop punishing innocent young people brought to the country through no fault of their own by their parents and give them a chance to earn their citizenship more quickly if they serve in the military or pursue higher education.    

The president’s proposal attracts the best minds to America by providing visas to foreign entrepreneurs looking to start businesses here and helping the most promising foreign graduate students in science and math stay in the country after graduation, rather than take their skills to other countries.  It will also reunify families in a timely and humane manner. 

The proposal invests in United States’ immigration courts by increasing the number of immigration judges and their staff, investing in training for court personnel, and improving access to legal information for immigrants, these reforms will improve court efficiency. 

It allows DHS to better focus its detention resources on public safety and national security threats by expanding alternatives to detention and reducing overall detention costs.  It also provides greater protections for those least able to represent themselves.

Additionally, the proposal provides tools for employers to ensure a legal workforce by using federal government databases to verify that the people they hire are eligible to work in the United States.  Penalties for hiring undocumented workers are significantly increased, and new penalties are established for committing fraud and identity theft.  

The new mandatory program ensures the privacy and confidentiality of all workers’ personal information and includes important procedural protections. Mandatory electronic employment verification would be phased in over five years with exemptions for certain small businesses.

Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform believes immigration reform must include some of the following provisions:  Keeping families together through a path to citizenship, and not separating them in the process of it; family members who’re deported must have the opportunity to return to be with their relatives; develop a migrant worker program that serves the interests of migrant workers, native born workers, and their families, not just employers that have abused the broken system for years should be penalized; human and civil rights activists will continue to aggressively push for accountability, humane treatment, and due process in the violent and abusive border and detention systems that have grown exponentially and wastefully in the last decade; an end to immigration enforcement programs that lead to racial profiling and harm the fabric of local communities. 

“The momentum is with us. We are close to victory…, and coming together to make sure we put an end to a broken immigration system,” Hassan Jaber, executive director of ACCESS said.