By Diana Pando
In November, 150 coalition community leaders, including 18 from TRP, and several elected officials put their bodies on the line for immigration reform by blocking Congress Parkway to express urgency around the need for comprehensive immigration reform. This demonstration, led by members of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) in front of ICE headquarters in downtown Chicago, included several undocumented and passionate leaders.
“We are extremely thankful for all the hard work that our member organizations have put in this year working to pass an immigration reform,” says ICIRR’s Communications Director Monica Trevino.
For Lupe Raymundo, Financial Services Counselor at The Resurrection Counselor, the immigration action made her get out of her comfort zone and participate because she was inspired by the many women and dreamers who are undocumented and unafraid.
“Keeping families together with better opportunities for education, work, and quality of life is an asset to this country,” says Lupe.  Collectively, we continue to demand that our elected leaders allow a vote to pass immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Also during a press conference in November, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was asked about immigration reform. Boehner told reporters, “Frankly, I’ll make clear, we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill.” While immigration reform has hit a roadblock in the House of Representatives, deportations continue to tear families apart, with two million deportations resulting in three million orphaned children.
The Resurrection Project and its immigration reform coalition partners working with the ICIRR will continue to fight to keep families together.
“We have to continue to organize to pressure US House Speaker John Boehner and Congressman Peter Roskam until they give us a vote on immigration,” says Trevino. Moving forward we will continue to update you on the latest immigration reform work we are doing locally with our coalition partners.
In the meantime, it is important for all of us to continue pressuring our elected leaders into taking action. With 1,100 deportations daily, immigration reform needs to happen now. The Resurrection Project and its partners urge you to contact your elected leaders and tell them you demand that they pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Return to Nueva Vida December 2013 here.