Hundreds of people from across California — including Ventura County — descended Wednesday on Bakersfield by car and bus to rally for an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country without legal permission.
Organized by labor unions, immigrant rights group and faith communities, the rally was meant to pressure Republican House whip Kevin McCarthy, of Bakersfield, to support comprehensive reform.
Rep. McCarthy is seen as House Speaker John Boehner’s “right-hand person, so he definitely has a lot of clout,” said Maricela Morales, deputy executive director for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE.
Immigrant advocacy groups throughout California are targeting McCarthy because he is the most powerful congressional representative in the state and can help bring an immigration bill to the House floor for a vote, Morales said.
McCarthy, whose 23rd Congressional District is 35 percent Latino, does not support a path to citizenship. He did not attend the rally.
“We should not provide any amnesty that would benefit those who defy our laws and enter the United States illegally,” his website states.
In a statement released Wednesday, he said the House would consider a series of narrowly focused bills instead of a comprehensive measure.
“I have long said that our immigration system is broken, but ... the House will move in a step-by-step approach that first secures the border,” McCarthy said.
Another protest
A counterprotest of a few dozen people took place in front of McCarthy’s office. Organized by We the People California Crusader, the protest called for current immigration laws to be enforced and advocated against immigration reform.
The rally calling for immigration overhaul was staged as immigration advocates target House Republicans across the country, pushing them to pass legislation that could be merged with a Senate-passed bill when they return to Washington in September after a five-week summer recess.
The Senate bill, passed with bipartisan support in June, takes a comprehensive approach, with billions of dollars for border security, reforms to visa programs and workplace enforcement, plus a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants already living in the country illegally.
Still, it remains an uphill battle to push the GOP-led House to pass legislation that could be merged with the Senate bill, and a path to citizenship remains a major hurdle.
“There is still time,” Morales said. “Certainly, the longer the Congress holds back on this, the window of opportunity gets smaller, but it’s not closed yet, and we are going to fight until there is no opportunity.”
About 40 CAUSE volunteers drove to Bakersfield to join the protest, while the United Farm Workers in Oxnard rented a charter bus to take nearly 60 local residents to the rally.
More than 71,000 immigrants are living in Ventura County without legal permission and about 60 percent hold jobs, according to CAUSE.
Mary Gonzalez, an 18-year-old CAUSE volunteer, attended the demonstration with her parents and younger sisters. The family lives in Ventura.
Gonzalez is the only child in her family who was not born in the United States. Her 19-year-old brother and 7-year-old twin sisters are U.S. citizens, while she was born in Jalisco, Mexico.
Gonzalez’s mother was pregnant with her when California voters passed Proposition 187 in 1994. The “Save Our State” initiative prevented immigrants who were living in the country illegally from receiving medical care and public education, among other social services.
The law was found unconstitutional by a federal court and eventually repealed in 1999, but Gonzalez said her mother returned to Mexico while she was pregnant because she feared she would be deported when she gave birth.
“My mom and my dad were already here for a few years before I was born,” said Gonzalez, who was brought to the U.S. before her second birthday. “I grew up here. I learned everything here. ... If it wasn’t for that supposed law, then I would’ve been born here.”
Roadblocks
Gonzalez said immigration reform and the benefits of becoming a legal resident “would stop the blocks” she has experienced in her life, such as struggling to get a work permit and not being able to apply for financial aid to attend a four-year university.
While Gonzalez is legally allowed to stay in the country through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy as she attends Ventura College and pursues a bachelor’s degree in psychology, her parents do not have the same protection.
“Especially since my sisters are so young, we don’t want our family to be separated,” said Gonzalez, who added that her father works for a Santa Barbara landscape supply store, while her mother stays at home with her sisters.
“Most immigrants are hardworking people,” she said. “They shouldn’t be punished just for being alive.”
Roman Pinal, a United Farm Workers organizer based in Oxnard, said an additional 15 charter buses were rented by the UFW throughout the state to have a presence of between 800 and 1,000 farmworkers at the Bakersfield event.
“The work that farmworkers do is vital,” Pinal said. “Not a day goes by where immigrants aren’t involved in the harvesting of every fruit and every vegetable imaginable. ... Our economy depends on them.”
Pinal said UFW has a daily, ongoing effort to see that comprehensive immigration reform is passed this year and is “very close to seeing some movement in the House.”
“We have a very unique and strong case to make that not only do farmworkers count on an earned legalization process, but our farms depend on the labor force that’s currently doing the hard work.”
“Farmworkers — with a lot of pride — wake up every day and do that hard work, and as consumers every day we’re out there and we go to the grocery stores and we see the fruits of that labor,” he said. “That’s going to continue; we’re just hoping it continues in a much more sustainable way, both for the workers and for the farms.”
Mercedes Chavez, who has been picking crops in Ventura County for the past decade, held her youngest daughter’s hand as she waited to board the bus to Bakersfield.
The 45-year-old said she fears deportation from her Oxnard home and being separated from her husband and six children, who range in age from 3 to 26 years.
Chavez has not left the United States since she entered the country illegally 10 years ago, but she said the restriction of not being able to leave and come back is even more painful now that her mother is sick and living alone near Puebla, Mexico.
“I can’t go to see her,” she said in Spanish. “If it’s fixed, the president could give permission to leave and enter so I can see my mom.”