Over 40 leaders of Central American community organizations gathered at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles today for a rally where they announced their participation in a coalition to urge Republican leadership in Congress to pass an immigration reform plan that includes a path to citizenship. 

Representatives of local immigrant organizations from Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama took turns speaking about what they describe as an urgent situation and why they are joining the coalition.

Gelen Arias is from Honduras and said that although she came to the U.S. illegally, she has gained legal status and is now a documented immigrant.  She had a message specifically for Latin American women.

“We have to leave the couch, and come out and bring our children to these events,” she said.  “If we don’t fight for our rights no one will do it for us.  We have to make sure we’re teaching our kids to fight for their rights and our future, and we have to do it for all those people we left behind,” said Arias, who has one daughter.

Arias said she hopes that Congress will hear her story and look at every case individually.  “I am an example of someone who is not living off the government and not coming to be a weight for this government.  I fixed my status, and I get up every day and work hard to build my own company and help my community,” she said. 

Arias tried to debunk common misconceptions, saying that not everyone is trying to take advantage of the opportunities in U.S. and that many can help contribute economically.  “Our documents just say that we’re not from here,” Arias said. 

She said that today’s rally was an important step to unite and organize the many different nationalities that make up Central American communities in L.A. behind a common cause in order to bring about the change they desire.  

“People will be more conscious of the power that we have if we all get united,” she said.

Javier Rodriguez helped organize the coalition and said this issue is deeply personal for him.

"It’s my people; it’s my family,” he said.  “The youth dreamers are my sons and daughters,” Rodriguez said as he described the effect that deportation of parents of his children’s closest friends has on his own family.  “My kids’ closest friends are undocumented and they feel the pain just as much because they see their friends’ parents being deported and families being torn apart.”

Rodriguez went on to say that he is desperate for a path to citizenship because long lines and a broken system have prevented legal immigration for many waiting to complete the process legally. It would help more than just the 11.5 million undocumented people living in the U.S., he said; it would also make a difference for the children and spouses of those living in the U.S. illegally. 

On Sept. 22 this coalition will march through downtown L.A. as part of Millions of Voices for Immigration Reform, a grand demonstration through which they will call on Congress to address the issue of immigration reform and create a path to citizenship this year. They hope to send a decisive message that the 52 million Latinos living in the U.S. expect a path to citizenship included in a comprehensive immigration reform bill. 

Rosa Posadas spoke passionately about the need for immigration reform and has high hopes for the march next month. 
“I would tell Congress to value the hand of immigrant workers,” Posadas said.  “It’s a key labor hand to maintain the economy of this country. We pay taxes, we pay even to work.  Therefore we need the immigration status so they can give us the treatment of a human being,” she said.

Drivers passing by the rally honked as Arias led protesters in peacefully chanting, “Si se puede!”

The coalition’s mega march, planned for September, is already garnering the attention of the Latino media. El Mandril and 16 other Spanish language DJs from Oxnard and Ventura to Los Angeles have begun promoting it. 

Rodriguez called El Mandril the number one radio program in the country and said with El Mandril’s support, he expects more than 1.7 million people to join the march next month, which would break the record number who participated in the 2006 large-scale immigration protests. The Millions of Voices for Immigration Reform Coalition is being organized by the same leaders who organized the 2006 mega marches, and now include immigrant rights organizations, religious groups, business groups and students. 

The Sept. 22 Millions of Voices for Immigration Reform march in Los Angeles is part of a national effort by advocates across the country to lobby Congress to vote on the immigration reform bill. They have now expanded the call to march to other major cities including San Francisco, San Jose and Las Vegas. 

Today’s rally comes just as the Republican National Committee (RNC) has begun ramping up pressure on House Republicans to pass an immigration reform bill by the end of the year, but they continue to oppose a path to citizenship. The RNC today issued a resolution calling on Congress to pass immigration reform, but stopped short of the bipartisan compromise that the Senate passed in June, specifically excluding a “path to citizenship.” 

House Republicans remain significantly split on this issue. 

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King criticized his Republican colleagues at a rally near House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s home in Virginia earlier this week for considering an immigration reform measure that he said equals amnesty and would “benefit the elitists, political power brokers, employers of illegals,” according to The Hill.  

However, some Republicans in the House have expressed frustration at the delayed action and suggested they would support the original bill.

“I think the Senate made tremendous progress,” said California Rep. Jeff Denham in a CBS News report.  “It was done bipartisan, and I thought that would be enough to get the House moving forward.”

Nevada Rep. Joe Heck also said he would support the Senate version of the bill. 

“I believe that the pathway that the Senate bill has laid out is a reasonable pathway," Rep. Heck said to CBS News. "I think when you look at having to go through background checks, having to pay a fine, having to make sure that your tax liabilities are paid, making sure that you're in a provisional status for a period of time, where you have to learn English, you have to show that you've got a job -- there's a lot of safeguards here,” Heck said.

A path to citizenship remains the outstanding issue of contention between Democrats and most Republicans, and is the primary focus for the Millions of Voices for Immigration Reform coalition in Los Angeles, which says it hopes to continue to grow the movement until they achieve the reform in Congress they are seeking.

Signaling that he may be willing to compromise, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, leader of the Gang of Eight who were the architects of the bill, said last week to Politico that even if the House passes separate bills, those measures could be bundled in a House-Senate conference committee. 

“We would much prefer a big comprehensive bill, but any way that the House can get there is OK by us,” Schumer said, according to Politico. “I actually am optimistic that we will get this done.”