Valley groups to push Hutchison and Cornyn on immigration reform
By Steve Taylor

Rio Grande Guardian

Mike Seifert, the Equal Voice for America’s Families coordinator in the Rio Grande Valley, asked for a moment of silence Saturday for those who have died crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.

AUSTIN, Feb. 21 – Rio Grande Valley community groups are to mount a postcard campaign to try to persuade U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn to back comprehensive immigration reform.

Details of the campaign, which will be spearheaded by the Equal Voice for America’s Families network, were announced at a major pro-immigration reform rally held in Austin on Saturday. More than 100 Valley residents attended the event.

“We are going to mount our postcard campaign as soon as our Cesar Chavez march is over on the 27th of this month,” said Martha Sanchez, a community activist with La Unión del Pueblo Entero.

“We know Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison are not supporting comprehensive immigration reform at this point. We need them to listen to the people of the Rio Grande Valley.”

Sanchez said thousands of Valley families are negatively impacted by the nation’s current immigration laws.

“A lot of our families are suffering right now because of our broken immigration system,” Sanchez said. “We want to have a strong America. We need to keep our families together.”

LUPE is a member of the Equal Voice network. Other groups in the network include Proyecto Azteca, Proyecto Juan Diego, Project ARISE, the START Center, SCAN, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, the Brownsville Community Health Center, and the Southwest Workers’ Union.

Mike Seifert, the Equal Voice coordinator in the Valley, referenced Cornyn and Hutchison in his speech at the Austin rally. In an interview with the Guardian afterwards, Seifert said there is a huge contrast between the policy position of the Valley’s delegation in the U.S. House, namely Reps. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and the two U.S. senators that represent the region.

“The congressmen know our position and support us on immigration reform. But, the two senators represent us also and they need to work for us. They once again need to be reminded of that. The purpose of the postcard campaign is to say, here we are and we are serious about this,” Seifert said.

The rally in Austin was held at the Travis County Expo Center and was attended by more than 700 people. It was organized by the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance and titled the “Texas Convention on Immigration Reform.

The purpose of the event, said Project ARISE Director Ramona Casas, was to send a “clear message” to President Obama and Texas senators and representatives that families, businesses and communities across the state cannot wait any longer for the federal government to fix the broken immigration system.

“This was an important convention for ARISE to be involved in because it allowed us to share the stories of the immigration community in the Rio Grande Valley,” Casas said. “We wanted to share our testimonies and let the legislators know that we need immigration reform now.”

Casas confirmed that Project ARISE will be part of the Cornyn-Hutchison postcard campaign. “We will not be quiet about this. We want immigration reform right now,” she said.

Two Valley residents who shared their stories on how the current immigration system can wreck family life were Alicia De Zavala from Edinburg and Laura Madrid from Port Isabel.

“I am a U.S. citizen with three jobs and I have just started my own painting and remodeling business with my husband, Margarito,” De Zavala explained. “However, my husband is from Mexico and does not have his documents. If I lose him, what am I going to do? He is a very good man. Why take the good men? Take the narcotraficantes people.”

In his speech, Seifert asked for a moment of silence for those who have died crossing the Chihuahuan Desert and the Rio Grande in order to get to the United States.

“Why did these people die? Because we do not have a way of facilitating immigration. We want the labor but we do not seem to want to do the right thing by them. It is unconscionable,” Seifert said later.

Seifert pointed out that more than 3,000 people have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since 1996. He contrasted this number to the 221 people who died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall in the 43 years it stood. “That is a conservative figure. We do not know how many people have died in the desert. It could be 4,000, 5,000, 6,000. It is a tragedy and a travesty at the same time,” he said.

Other speakers at the rally included Ali Noorani, director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C., Sam Guzman, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce, Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union.