Dozens of immigrants and their allies gathered by candlelight in Oxnard’s Plaza Park on Dec. 10 to raise an urgent moral call to policy makers for justice for immigrant families, and especially for the children and young people who are being hurt by a broken immigration system, the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice – Ventura County (CLUE-VC) reported in a media release.
The interfaith vigil was sponsored by CLUE-VC and drew clergy and lay leaders from throughout the county and from many religions.
“In this season of peace and reconciliation, it’s important to remind ourselves that every faith tradition calls on us to honor the stranger in our midst. Instead, we find families are being shattered and children damaged, when a parent is deported. For these children, the best present they could get this holiday season is to have their parents home,” the Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford of Thousand Oaks, Clergy chair for the event, stated in the release. “We call on all people of faith to join us in demanding a humane immigration system that honors family unity, stops the separation of families through deportation, and protects the children.”
Two major recent studies (1,2) have revealed the harm done to children, most of them U. S. citizens, caught in the immigration debacle. For example, children are sent to foster care when parents are deported (more than 5,000 children so far), and children are suffering social and economic instability and behavioral changes, when families are separated.
In addition, young adults who came here as children, and know only the United States as home, are being threatened with deportation and forced to live in the shadows. CLUE-VC has organized many of these youth, who are demanding that Congress and the Administration’s DHS/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recognize the need for exemplary students to continue their education, go to college, and contribute to the workforce.
Ana, one of these young adult “Dreamers without Borders/Soñadores sin Fronteras,” said, “I worked hard and was an exemplary college student and graduated with high honors. I helped my classmates who were struggling to stay in college. I am the only one who can take care of my mother, who is very sick, yet the law does not allow me to work. We need immigration policies and a reform to keep families like ours together, and to enable students to pursue their dreams.”
Victor Escobar is another “Dreamer.” A graduate of Cal State Chico with dreams of going to law school, he came here when he was still in elementary school. He attended the event to call for “a system that makes economic sense. As hundreds of millions are lost in states that implement their own immigration policies, the American people realize that the migrant workforce is essential to keep this nation moving. In addition, while more professionals are brought from other countries, immigration is deporting them. It makes no economic sense.”
“Like the majority of people in this country, we want an immigration system that welcomes people who work hard, pay taxes, raise their families, and own small businesses,” said Vanessa Frank Garcia, chair of CLUE-VC.
“More and more citizens are realizing that every day we come into contact with good people, who clearly have a place in our society, but have no way to become documented,” she said. “We need an immigration system that matches our country’s pledge to be a place where anyone can stake out their American dream and, through hard work and dedication to community, make that dream come true.”
The Ventura County event is coordinated with the National New Sanctuary Movement and part of a week of events held in cities throughout the U. S., beginning on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, and ending on Dec. 18, International Migrants Day.
Cities holding events include Seattle, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
Co-sponsors of the Ventura County event, with CLUE-VC, are the National New Sanctuary
Movement, La Hermandad Mexicana (Oxnard) and Poder Popular Santa Paula.
For more information, visit http://www.cluevc.org/
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(1) Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement, Urban Institute, Feb.
2010, http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412020_FacingOurFuture_final.pdf
(2) Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and