Immigrant Leaders Call for National March of 100,000 in Washington D.C.

Groups urge Durbin and Obama to show leadership on Immigration Reform - Youth and allies commit to 10,000 riders and 200 buses from Illinois

Chicago, Illinois (NED) - Last week, President Obama’s State of the Union marked an auspicious anniversary for immigrant-rights activists in Illinois - one year of inaction on the broken immigration system. During his campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to address comprehensive immigration reform in year one.  Now, as the calendar crosses this critical deadline, advocates are treating it like a starting pistol and have kicked their campaign into sprint-mode with a message for hometown leaders Obama and Senator Durbin: “We need your leadership”.

On Saturday, with 185 young supporters leading the way, allies hailing from Chicago to Bolingbrook to Champaign to Woodstock gathered Saturday at the Student Center of the UIC to say they too had had enough. Students focused on recruiting people to go to Washington, DC on March 21st to join the national immigration march.  Leaders started their meeting with an ambitious goal of mobilizing 10,000 riders to fill 200 buses.  By the end of a day of training and a spontaneous phone bank, they had already received commitments for the first 66 of those buses and $243,000 to fund their operation.

These young leaders are channeling their anger right now into one thing: buses for March 21st.  They are calling on the leaders of their churches, campuses, high schools, and local businesses to take responsibility for organizing a bus to DC.  “We want the Congress and the President to act,” said Tania Unzueta, youth organizer and activist with the Immigrant Youth Justice League. “We want leadership and results from our elected officials but they haven’t delivered. Now is the time to exert out own leadership and show our commitment by marching in D.C. on March 21st.”