Home > Our Blog > Harry Reid Promises Action on Reform at Mass Rally

Blog Post

Harry Reid Promises Action on Reform at Mass Rally

Posted April 10, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

Large immigrant rights rallies were held in many locations around the United States over the last 48 hours. These are the first mass rallies after the March 21 demonstration in Washington.

One of the largest rallies took place Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, where a crowd of 6,000 heard a promise from Senator Majority leader Harry Reid that immigration reform is on the agenda now that health care reform has been taken care of.

According to the New York Times, Reid said that work on passing immigration reform would begin as soon as Congress returns to Washington this week:

“We’re going to come back, we’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now,” he said in a speech to more than 6,000 people, mostly immigrants, gathered downtown.

“We need to do this this year,” Mr. Reid said, drawing cheers. “We cannot wait.”

Mr. Reid surprised immigrants and advocates with his direct commitment to moving forward with legislation on the volatile issue, with the Senate already divided by the passage of health care reform.

“We’re going to pass immigration reform, just as we passed health care reform,” he said in a five-minute speech to the crowd, many of them Latinos. Latino voters, who strongly support an overhaul, were crucial to Barak Obama’s upset victory in the state in 2008.

Mr. Reid told the crowd that he believes he has 56 votes in the Senate to pass the immigration legislation. He called on immigrant groups to help mobilize support among Republicans for the overhaul.

He outlined legislation that would include border security measures, and a temporary guest worker program for future immigrants. To gain legal status, illegal immigrants would face “a penalty and a fine, people will have to work, stay out of trouble, pay taxes, learn English,” he said. “It’s not so bad, is it,” he asked the crowd.

Dick Durbin addressed a rally by more than a thousand immigrant rights supporters in Chicago. In Seattle, hundreds of young people, many of whom came to the U.S. as babies marched to demonstrate the plight of undocumented teenagers whose parents brought them here and who have been educated here, but whose lives seem to end with graduation from high school when they realize they are undocumented.

A prayer vigil was held by the Diocese of San Bernadino in California. The vigil’s organizers announced they had collected 49,000 postcards to Congress in support of immigration reform.

Smaller towns are not being bypassed by this movement. In Lakewood, New Jersey 300 people marched down Route 9 calling for immigration reform on Saturday.

Here is video from the Seattle rally: