As she walked in a May Day march for immigrants’ rights Friday night in New Haven, this woman laid out a plan for immigration reform that would not only help her and the 12 million other folks in the U.S. without papers, but would also boost the U.S. economy.
Ana (pictured above) came on the march with her three children, ages 6, almost 4, and seven months. By the end of the walk up Chapel Street from Church Street to Sherman Avenue and back, all three kids were riding on the stroller, with mom pushing mightily from behind. In a mix of English and Spanish, she told her story.
Ana moved to the U.S. from Puebla, Mexico, more than a decade ago. She lived for six years in California before moving to Fair Haven.
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“I came here because I think everyone needs an opportunity. This country is very good to us,” she said. Now immigrants need one more boost, she said — a road to citizenship. She said if President Obama is able to get significant reform passed this year, immigrants could become full members of society, while boosting the economy at the same time.
“The U.S. doesn’t have enough money, and if they give me the opportunity to have my citizenship, I have to pay a lawyer, I have to pay a fine; then I can buy my own house and my own car, and I have to pay for my license, car insurance, and registration.”
Ana said she hopes reform won’t include a blanket amnesty. “I think not all immigrants should be allowed to have citizenship, because not everyone is good. It will be good to take all the bad people out, and leave the people who came here to work.”
She added that legal immigrants would also pay taxes. Ana paid taxes when she was working; now she cares for her children and sells cosmetics from home, while her husband works as a chef. He was working Friday night, she said, but even if he were free he wouldn’t have come to the march. They obviously disagree on this point.
“A reform, a march, a fight — it’s for everyone — we all need reform, we all need papers, we all need to lose our fear, face forward and move ahead,” she declared passionately. “We have to leave behind these excuses — that I can’t, that I don’t have time, that I’m tired, that someone else will do it for me. If everyone thought that way, nobody would ever accomplish anything.”
This year’s march was smaller than those of the previous few years, with about 100 people. John Jairo Lugo from Unidad Latina en Accion, one of the march organizers, said with a new president in the White House it’s important to be in the streets demonstrating support for true immigration reform. Obama has called for a path to citizenship for the nation’s immigrants.
It was suggested that some would-be marchers felt less of a need to come out because they think Obama and the firmly Democrat-controlled Congress will do the right thing on their own.
Alejandro Delgado, a grad student at Yale (pictured with his girlfriend, Serena Sprungl), said he came to the U.S. from Mexico with his family when he was 5 years old. He noted this year’s march was “smaller, but still lively.” He wasn’t sure why. “Maybe swine flu worries, but also immigration reform isn’t on the table the same way it was nationally in the recent past, and we need to get back to that point. There might be some complacency with Obama in the White House, but it’s all the more reason for people to be out here. Obama can’t do it alone, and he won’t do it alone, and it can’t happen without broad-based support.”