Appeal to Obama: Don't Break Up Our Families

A group of families met in Chicago over the weekend with an urgent appeal for the new president-elect.

CHICAGO, Nov. 15 -- The people were of different nationalities and backgrounds, but they had a common refrain: Don't split up our families.

The 300-plus people who attended the meeting Saturday at St. Pius Church in the Pilsen neighborhood were sending a reminder to President-elect Barack Obama to keep his promise to address immigration reform.

"I expect Barack Obama, our engine for change, will do everything he can to keep his promise for comprehensive immigration reform that reunites families who are already separated and keeps families together," said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D), who called the meeting and who in the next Congress will reintroduce immigration legislation he co-sponsored last year.

Chicago, Obama's home, has in recent years been at the forefront of the battle over immigration. The wave of massive marches for immigrant rights in 2006 started here, and Chicago groups -- including the grass-roots organization La Familia Latina Unida -- have for several years taken the lead nationally on "mixed-status" families.

. . .

The Aguirre and Pulido families that gathered in a Mexican restaurant after sharing their stories at St. Pius are among the nearly 2 million families in the United States with at least one undocumented parent and children who are U.S. citizens.

Ana Pulido's husband came to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, at age 15. Ana is a U.S. citizen, and their three sons were born here. Pulido's husband, 35, went to Mexico in 1998 when his father was on his deathbed. He returned to the United States using his nephew's identity, was deported, then returned illegally again. He has a pending deportation order and fears that agents might show up at his home any day.

"I have two choices: divorce him or bring the whole family to Mexico," said Pulido, 31, a real estate agent, who fears that her mother also might be deported. "When you've been married to the same man for years, that's a hard choice."

Some may ask why didn't these families anticipate these hard choices beforehand; why are they asking for a 'free pass' now?

Many of these families and individuals have faced a series of hard choices that led them to this point.  For some, the laws changed under their feet, adding immigration consequences that didn't previously exist, or removing paths to citizenship that did.  Others felt they had no choice, they needed to work towards a brighter future by coming to this country.  And who you fall in love with is not always easy to predict or control.

Not all mixed-status families involve people from Latin America.

Brian Wilkins, 31, is married to a Bulgarian woman, 26, who was ordered to leave the country after her father's application for permanent residency was denied. Wilkins, who met his wife while selling merchandise on a Britney Spears concert tour, is selling his two suburban Chicago houses and moving to Bulgaria with his wife Dec. 27, even though he doesn't speak the language.

. . .

But Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the economy makes it imperative to address the situation.

"In a time of economic crisis, it's important to prevent unscrupulous employers from pulling down wages by hiring undocumented workers," he said. "The deportation-only strategy has the effect of destroying families, including the families of many U.S. citizens. If you believe the family is the basic social unit, then that sacred unit should be preserved, and it should not be an ideological or partisan issue."

Preservation of the family is an issue on which seculars and people of faith should be able to find common ground.  It is a matter of human rights as it is a matter of basic values.  Will Obama listen?  Will Congress?

(Via BIB)