As voters debate which political candidate is most qualified to be the future leader of our nation, more than 170 faith and community leaders from across the country will conclude an 11-day walking pilgrimage to urge lawmakers in California and throughout the nation to fix our country’s broken immigration system.
This journey for justice, which began at the Tijuana border and will conclude at a Los Angeles detention center, is not merely an exercise in civil disobedience for the disaffected. We are not jaded, nor have we lost hope. We are walking because we understand that our feet can fuel progress, our voices can reunite families, and our sweat can change history.
Thousands of people, including members of our own communities, live in the shadows because there is no path for them to gain citizenship. Two-thirds of these people have been here for more than a decade. These are our neighbors, our coworkers, and members of our congregations.
I know their stories all too well. As a pastor, I see their unyielding determination to overcome the poverty and violence found in their home countries. I see the faces of their young children for whom they risk life and limb to provide a safer future. As the father of three beautiful children, there is little that I wouldn’t do to provide my kids with the best opportunities life has to offer.
With each step of our Camino del Inmigrantes, we stand in solidarity with immigrants whose bruised and battered feet crossed our nation’s southern border in search for a better life.
While some politicians seek to build commercial buildings on the backs of immigrant labor and propel their political ambitions on talk of building walls, we who believe in Christ and the dignity of all life are focused on building bridges. We must urge our political leaders to confront the injustice of our current immigration policy.
The soul of our nation rests in the soles of our feet. When determined groups of Americans take tenacious steps toward justice, our nation always improves.
When Latino and Filipino grape workers led by Cesar Chavez walked 340-miles to protest years of poor pay and working conditions, they marched their way into history, advancing the cause of workers’ rights for years to come.
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others marched from Selma, Ala., to steps of the capitol in Montgomery, a major policy victory in the form of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 soon followed.
I truly believe that even if you’re not born in America, you can be an American. Hardworking immigrants who become entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, caregivers, and more are strengthening our communities. Creating a path to citizenship for new Americans and ensuring that all immigrant families are treated with fairness and dignity must be top priority for all of our elected officials, including the next president. I am determined to walk until it is.
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