Photo: Maria Teneva/Unsplash
By Lily Bohlke, Public News Service
Advocates for immigrants and refugees in Illinois traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to push for a pathway to citizenship for up to eight million undocumented immigrants.
They asserted they will not stop fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, despite the Senate parliamentarian's decision, which stated current rules do not allow the proposal to be included in the budget reconciliation package in Congress.
Omar Awadh, community organizer for Arab American Family Services in Chicago, who is a Temporary Protected Status holder, said there is no time to waste.
"The different communities, undocumented communities have been living in fear, with the harassment from ICE," Awadh observed. "They fear that their families will be broken, they will be separated from their families, they are going to be separated from their livelihoods."
In recent polling, 65% of Americans think undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. and eventually apply for citizenship. More than 80% said they support citizenship for recipients of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The citizenship proposal in the budget reconciliation package applied to those Dreamers, farmworkers, essential workers and people with Temporary Protected Status.
Awadh hopes to see all undocumented residents have the opportunity to become citizens, especially since members of Congress and the President committed to immigration reform in their election campaigns.
"We will not accept the fact that using us as pawns for the campaigns, talking about citizenship, and then forget about us," Awadh asserted. "They must hold themselves accountable."
The push for immigration reform comes as resettlement agencies in Illinois are working to support Afghan refugees beginning to arrive to the state. Chicago alone is expected to become home to more than 500 people fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Imagine a family of six people coming to your house. They knock on the door. They look tired, frail, dirty and very hungry. They are desperate. Two of the six people are under six years old. Their clothes are rags and their shoes are barely still on their feet. They tell you about their plight. They have traveled a long way. They left their country in search of a better life. They need you to help them. They need you to give them shelter, food, clothes and some cash. They need to stay with you for a while.
What if your sole income is $2,000 a month in Social Security? What if your pantry is no longer overstocked? What if you have trouble saving enough money each month to pay your utility bills and keep your car running? Your heart goes out to these people.
You would like to help them, but you don’t have the means to care for yourself and so you have to say, "I can’t. The reason I can’t is because seriously, I just don’t have the financial means to do so."
The next thing that happens is they totally ignore what you’ve just said and come into your house anyway. They scatter out to your bedrooms and begin to make themselves at home. They open your refrigerator and eat the food you have and then ask you to fix them more. Next, they need money.
"Do you have money you can please give us?" they ask. You ask them to leave but they remind you they are desperate people who need for you to help them.
Next, they insist you go to the bank and draw out your life savings and hand it over to them. They are desperate and need money. They promise they will leave. Now you are scared.
You wonder what’s next? You call The White House. You talk to Joe Biden and he lets you know that Kamela Harris is on top of this and hangs up. Of course, you don’t see any of them moving in with him. Delaware is a long way from the border. He doesn’t figure Immigrants will be much of a problem up there when he retires.
At least sixty thousand immigrants are coming to the border of Mexico to enter the United States. They are all desperate people in search of adequate housing, jobs, free education, free medical insurance and more.
Panama’s Prime Minister sounded a warning that a massive group is passing their county and many of them are coming from Haiti. Erika Mouynes is reported to have notified the White House of the most recent migration surge. She recently described how her country has seen 80,000 Haitian immigrants and evacuees crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States this year.
Outlaws rob out of desperation. Drug addicts steal and kill out of desperation. Rapists assault out of deranged desperation. We don’t overlook these criminal acts in America.
They are coming here. They are moving in. They are desperate for shelter, food, free education, free Medicare, free transportation and more. Their desperation doesn’t make it right.
America is a nation of immigrants. Most of them have come legally and followed an orderly process. If our national leaders do not gain control of our border crisis a further humanitarian crisis unlike, we’ve ever seen is fast approaching.
The Pfizer booster will be available to residents 65 years of age or older, folks between the ages 50 and 64 with underlying health conditions, healthcare workers, and first responders who have completed their 1st and 2nd doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Individuals must also have received their second Pfizer dose six or months ago.
According to a release issued today, "... the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many of the people who are now eligible to receive a booster shot received their initial vaccine early in the vaccination program and will benefit from additional protection. With the Delta variant’s dominance as the circulating strain and cases of COVID-19 increasing significantly across the United States, a booster shot will help strengthen protection against severe disease in those populations who are at high risk for exposure to COVID-19 or the complications from severe disease. Additional information can be found at: 
