Immigration Reform Advocates Meet With Northwest Arkansas Community Members
STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE David Gearhart, left, university chancellor, and Curt Rom, center, professor of agriculture, speak Thursday with Eliseo Medina, a Mexican-American labor union activist and advocate for immigration reform in the United States, during a rally for Fast for Families Across America.
Friday, March 14, 2014
SPRINGDALE -- Amanda Perez said she's trying to legally fight her husband's deportation. She said immigration reform could keep other families from having to deal with the same problem.
Immigration reform advocates from several organizations and Northwest Arkansas community members, such as Perez, met with advocates from the Fast For Families Campaign on Thursday.
By The Numbers
Arkansas Immigrants
Foreign-born Arkansans made up 4.4 percent of the state’s population in 2011.
• In 2011, 28 percent of immigrants were naturalized as citizens.
• In 2010, 1.8 percent of the population were undocumented immigrants.
• In 2011, 6.5 percent of the population was Latino.
• In 2011, 1.2 percent of the population was Asian.
Source: immigrationpolicy.o…
By The Numbers
US Immigrants
In 2011 there were 40.4 million foreign-born people living in the country.
• In 2011 there were 15.5 million naturalized citizens.
• In 2011, there were 11.1 million authorized migrants.
• There was a 30 percent increase in the foreign-born population from 2000 to 2011.
• About 52 percent of immigrants own homes.
Source: americanprogress.org
Advocates with the campaign are traveling on a bus across the country to urge U.S. House of Representatives members to vote on immigration reform, said Beatriz Lopez, senior campaign communications specialist for the Service Employees International Union. The union is a sponsor of the Fast For Families Campaign.
"We have to really turn up the pressure on the leadership in the house," she said.
Advocates with the campaign and other organizations visited 3rd District Rep. Steve Womack's office in Fort Smith, held a rally in Fayetteville and had a town hall meeting at The Jones Center in Springdale. Their goal in the region was to influence Womack, Lopez said.
Womack, R-Ark., is from Rogers and is running for election as an incumbent with no major party opposition.
"I recognize our current immigration system is broken and believe Congress should carefully and thoughtfully approach immigration reform – it's too important and complex to rush through Congress," said Womack, by email.
Lopez said she disagrees with Womack.
"They've had plenty of time," she said. "It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when, and that's now."
Advocates and community members raised their fists in the air at various times during the town hall meeting. They shouted "Si se puede," a Spanish phrase that means "Yes we can."
The meeting room at The Jones Center was full except for a few empty seats. Advocates and community members spoke at a lectern about immigration reform and about their stories involving immigration and deportation.
Perez, a Rogers resident and U.S. citizen, spoke to the audience about her husband's deportation. She said she has to raise her 8-year-old son by herself, because his father isn't in the country.
Cristian Avila, 23, said he works with the campaign and is an undocumented immigrant with a work permit under national legislation called Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals. He moved with his parents to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 9 years old.
Avila said immigration reform is important to him, because it would give him and his family members a way to become U.S. citizens.
"It means the world to me," he said.
Womack said his staff members met with advocates in Fort Smith office earlier in the day.
"I certainly appreciate their passion and look forward to continuing a dialog on immigration reform with them," he said.
The campaign's tour bus has stopped in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, Lopez said. Their next stop will be in Louisiana.
NW News on 03/14/2014