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"I want to share our dreams and to be able to change the minds of the people who see us as criminals, and for them to know that we are hardworking people, and with our work we have contributed to the greatness of this country," said Doris Castaneda through an interpreter. She is originally from Guatemala and currently attends Our Lady Queen of the Angels Parish in Los Angeles.
If they are here illegally, then they are crimmals.
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Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke at the prayer service, encouraging participants to make their voices heard at the White House and on Capitol Hill as he pledged to personally fight for them in the Senate.
He is going to fight for them, but he is going to "pay" the bill for them instead of the taxpayers?
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Immigrants share struggles, dreams on journey across America
By Andrea Slivka
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After traveling together by train for five days, a group of immigrants and their supporters representing more than 40 countries arrived in Washington June 19 to join an interfaith march to the White House.
The Dreams Across America Tour included more than 100 immigrants and citizens who traveled across the country to bring a human face to the immigration issue. A group of Catholic parishioners and clergy from the Los Angeles Archdiocese participated in the journey.
"I want to share our dreams and to be able to change the minds of the people who see us as criminals, and for them to know that we are hardworking people, and with our work we have contributed to the greatness of this country," said Doris Castaneda through an interpreter. She is originally from Guatemala and currently attends Our Lady Queen of the Angels Parish in Los Angeles.
The group arrived in Washington just as the Senate was going to reconsider a bill that had been shelved about two weeks earlier.
During the trip, the Dreams Across America participants shared both their frustrations with the current immigration system and their dreams of building better lives in the United States.
Cathy Gurney, a commercial landscape owner from the Los Angeles Archdiocese, was struck by the story of a mother and daughter who emigrated from China. The mother's immigration papers came through easily, but the 16-year-old daughter's background check was not processed for five years. The daughter is now 21 and must start the process over again, facing the possibility of being deported.
"And these are the stories people don't realize," Gurney said in an interview with Catholic News Service.
Gurney joined the trip because it is almost impossible, she said, for her to find legal workers for her business that employs close to 60 Hispanic workers. She wants to pass on the business to her grown sons but expects it will have to close in the next few years unless immigration reform is passed, providing for more workers to enter the country legally.
She wants Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year that will do more than just secure the borders.
But even though she is concerned about her own business, she said she was humbled hearing the immigrants' stories and their struggles with the system.
She remembered one tour participant who told the others that his wife had just been deported to Poland after the couple had worked for years with the U.S. immigration system to have her status legalized. His 6-year-old son is an American citizen, but the couple decided it would be best for him to be with his mother in Poland.
Amanda Figueroa, another participant, said this story also touched her because the father could only tell his son that he would see him again sometime, but he didn't know when.
Figueroa herself is a naturalized citizen from Bolivia in South America. She said she worked very hard to provide for her daughter who is now a college graduate.
"I want to see her dreams come true," she said. "I put my efforts into building a strong country because it's my daughter's future and my grandchildren's future."
Other immigrants had come from Africa, India, Peru, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea and Mexico, among other countries.
The Dreams Across America Tour ended when participants joined a mobilization of immigrant families and faith leaders to march from an interfaith prayer service to the White House June 19.
The service and march were organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement and ended with immigrant children delivering a Father's Day card to the White House to symbolize the fathers who have been separated from their children, according to a release. Participants also had an impromptu visit with the chief of staff of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke at the prayer service, encouraging participants to make their voices heard at the White House and on Capitol Hill as he pledged to personally fight for them in the Senate.
He also spoke about the importance of religion in the immigration movement, citing Matthew's Gospel in which Jesus tells his disciples to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger.
"Matthew wasn't talking about green cards when he talked about welcoming the stranger," Kennedy said.
After shelving the original bill that the Senate spent two weeks considering, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reintroduced a slightly different version of it June 18. The new version is intended to address some of the objections of senators who blocked the first one from going to a final vote. Among the changes was a stronger emphasis on enforcement.
Frank Sharry, director of the National Immigration Forum, which represents a coalition of pro-immigrant organizations, said different approaches were being planned to get through some of the dozens of amendments senators are expected to try to attach to the bill.
Sharry said June 18 that if the bill gets through procedural hurdles it could be up for a final vote June 27.
A House immigration reform bill is proceeding along a different course, with consideration by the Judiciary Committee possible before the congressional August recess.

