WASHINGTON – Thousands of people from across the country gathered on the National Mall Sunday for a march aimed at jumpstarting the debate on comprehensive immigration reform.
Just blocks from the Capitol and White House, the predominantly Latino crowd chanted pro-reform slogans, carried American flags and listened to impassioned speakers who addressed the demonstrators from a large stage erected in the center of the mall. Their handmade signs – some in Spanish, some in English – read, "We're American, too," "Don't take our dreams away," and "Legalization now!"
With lawmakers still debating a historic vote on health care reform Sunday, the demonstrators hoped their message would be heard.
"What we're hoping to achieve here today is that we have immigration reform," Julio Avila, a janitor from Anaheim, said with the help of a translator from the Service Employees International Union. "It's been too long since we've had it. The situation keeps on getting more difficult for working families."
Avila, who is from Peru, was one of about a dozen demonstrators from southern Californiawho flew to Washington courtesy of the SEIU.
Although immigration reform would have a limited effect on someone such as Avila, who is here legally, he said it is necessary for a younger generation of immigrants who come to the United States to get an education or to seek better jobs.[
[Posted by Brenda Diaz]
http://www.ocregister.com/news/reform-240301-immigration-immigrants.html
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