(MintPress) – While Americans across the country will spend July 4 to celebrate freedom and independence, a diverse group will gather in San Antonio, Texas, to rally for civil rights, in the wake of recent discussions around the status of immigrants in America.
The rally is one of several taking place across the country Wednesday in advance of the Sept. 15 national Viva El Pueblo Latino procession to the Lincoln Memorial, where activists from around the country will gather to push for a permanent solution to immigration issues.
Spotlighting the rally in San Antonio
“We do this every year, and we want to send a strong message out that we are advocating for the undocumented citizens,” Sarwat Husain, founding president of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a national board member of CAIR, told MintPress. Husain will be present at the event and has also been asked to deliver remarks to the crowd.
Groups and individuals attending the rally range from politicians to rights activists to peace groups, Husain said.
“We want comprehensive immigration reform, a just path to citizenship and reunification of families,” said Jaime Martinez, Chairman of the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Educational Foundation in San Antonio, in an interview with MintPress. Martinez is also a co-chair of the Vivia El Pueblo Latino initiative.
Martinez said the event this week in San Antonio as well as the one in September in Washington, D.C. will bring together people whose interests range from civil to human rights as well as people from different cultural and religious backgrounds, all of which believe that “this country was founded on principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all – but there are many immigrants who are here and are contributing, but who do not see that.”
“The suffering is uncalled for,” said Husain. “The civil rights of everybody must be protected.”
Recent measures aimed at immigration reform
The status of immigrants in America has been heavily debated on a national scale for several years, with some key pieces of legislation coming to fruition recently.
One measure, drawing cheers from immigrant rights supporters, came as the White House said it would halt the deportation of up to as many as 800,000 young illegal immigrants and in some cases give them work permits under a new initiative announced by the Department of Homeland Security in mid-June.
Under provisions of the program, expected to start within the next three months, people under age 30 who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas when they were under the age of 16 will be immune from deportation if they have not committed a significant misdemeanor or felony and have graduated from a U.S. high school or joined the military. They can apply for a renewable two-year work permit that won’t provide a path to citizenship, if they are able to prove they’ve lived in the country for five consecutive years.
“I recognize the courage of President Obama,” Martinez said. “This action will give young, undocumented immigrants the courage to come out of the shadows in the only country they have ever known as home.”
But not all of the new legal measures aimed at immigrants in America have been regarded by immigrant rights’ groups so positively.
While the the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key provisions of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 immigration law last week, some aspects of the law were upheld, including the popularly known “show me your papers” provision, which requires police officers to check the immigration status of anyone who they arrest or detain and allows them to stop and arrest someone they believe may be an illegal immigrant. The nation’s estimated 11.5 million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status and others remain fearful about their future in America.
Last week’s ruling on the Arizona law highlighted the federal government’s role in regulating immigration and cast doubt on what states could attempt on their own.
“There are many hard-working immigrants who have been deported, leaving children without their mothers. This is not what America stands for,” Martinez said.
The American dream ahead
Ultimately, Martinez, Husain and other activists would like to see sweeping reforms of U.S. immigration laws and an acknowledgement that immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy in profound ways.
Both Husain and Martinez spoke of the Social Security earnings suspense file, a fund of taxes collected under bad Social Security numbers which will not be paid as benefits until the numbers are cleared up.
The fund, which is growing by $7 billion a year, is assumed to be comprised partly from fake Social Security cards used by immigrants.
“It shows hard-working immigrants have paid their taxes into Social Security in billions of dollars,” Martinez said.
“The government never reports to the public what they get from immigrants,” Husain added, saying she believes news of the fund is under-reported.
The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is a federal holiday that celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of the Independence on July 4, 1776.
In part, the document reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“We want to see that dream for these hard-working people,” said Martinez, referring to undocumented immigrants living in the country, “They come here seeking the American dream.”
“This is a peaceful fight,” said Husain. “We want to make a difference. We want to make a change.”