A coalition of community, political and religious leaders is organizing what it calls a mega march for bipartisan immigration reform.
The group announced plans Tuesday at Dallas City Hall.
Former League of United Latin American Citizens President Domingo Garcia, who is currently the chair of the National LULAC Adelante PAC, is leading the efforts.
“We believe it's time that we stand up against hate,” Garcia said. “We stand up against the scapegoating and the fear mongering, and we stand up for American values that are etched in our Constitution, that are etched in the Statue of Liberty.”
Garcia said he and others are not against the government going after criminals; rather, they’re against targeting those who came to the U.S. to work and want to gain legal status.
“We're talking about people who have come here and are working, picking our crops, working on the construction in 100-degree weather and building our roads and our schools, people that are working in meatpacking plants in terrible conditions to put a steak and a hamburger on your table,” Garcia said.
President Donald Trump made immigration enforcement a focus of his campaign, promising mass deportations starting on Day 1 of his presidency. He’s signed a slate of orders to curb legal immigration, halt refugee resettlement and declare an emergency at the southern border.
Garcia said the rhetoric coming from the White House has consequences.
Marbella Carranza spoke at Tuesday’s news conference. She’s the mother of Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, the 11-year-old Gainesville girl who died by suicide after her family said classmates taunted her and said her parents would be deported.
“I want us to lift our voice and we be united," Carranza said in Spanish. “We don’t want this to happen again.”
Organizers like Garcia are hoping that the event on March 30 generates a large crowd like the one held in 2006. He said half a million people marched for immigration reform at that time to stop a law that would have made every immigrant without legal status a felon.
"We defeated that bill with marches throughout the United States,” he said. “We believe that it's time that we do that again.”
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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