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Immigration Movement Continues For Fourth Week Amidst Talk Of Demise

Posted February 2, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Change.org reports that the Philadelphia City Council has endorsed Comprehensive Immigration Reform, as has the Cook County Board of Supervisors, who oversee the county of which Chicago is a part.

The United States Student Association also endorsed Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This national organization representing student governments around the country has long supported the DREAM Act and views inclusion of students in immigration reform as vital.

On Monday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez headlined a pro-reform rally in Los Angeles where he criticized the Obama administration’s lack of effort for immigration reform. The Illinois Congressman wondered if Latinos might stay away from the polls in November if the Democrats failed to act.

And new polling makes Gutierrez’s worries seem real. A recent poll by Latino Decisions, “a research team specializing in the Latino vote, found that significant numbers of Latino voters would defect without passage of immigration reform”, says the L.A. Times.

Latino leaders are increasingly angry at being taken for granted by Democrats. The LA Times reports that:

“Democrats have to be very careful that they don’t push Latinos from frustration to an active attitude of punishing them for inaction,” said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a nonpartisan public policy analysis organization.

Gonzalez said 1,000 Latino leaders from 15 states who recently met in Texas agreed to launch an “accountability campaign” to publicize whether House and Senate members support immigration reform and withhold votes from those who do not.

Today, a march took place in the grand ethnic neighborhood of South Philly. Tonight, immigrants will rally for reform in Des Moines, Iowa. Like several recent events, the rally will focus as much on accountability as on passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. A similar rally was held today in bitterly cold Syracuse . Another rally was held in Eugene, Oregon.

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