The Path to Citizenship: Immigrants, Supporters Rally for Change

Written by Rachel Hatzipanagos and Sherell Williams

As the House of Representatives prepares to review a bill that could enact tighter border security and provide immigrants a better path to citizenship, advocates gathered Wednesday night outside Congressman Frank Wolf’s offices in an interfaith rally to call for change.

“Frank Wolf is not Native American that I know and nor are many of our leaders … We pray that they would think of the people who are currently immigrants that they may have the same opportunities that their ancestors had in this country,” said Father Daniel Rivera of St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Leesburg.

The rally, sponsored by Annandale-based Virginia New Majority and the Centreville Immigrant Forum, sent about 100 supporters from Northern Virginia marching a half mile from the Hilton-Washington Dulles hotel  to Wolf’s office because the congressman represents many immigrants in his district, organizers said. 

Representatives from three local churches spoke at the event; many who marched are currently hoping for a path to citizenship.

The rally comes as the House of Representatives takes up the  Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, or S. 744, this week.

The bipartisan Senate immigration bill,  drafted by four democrats and four republicans and introduced in April, was approved in June with a vote of 68-32. 

The bill would increase border security and provide a way for about 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S. to obtain citizenship. But Speaker John A. Boehner has stated that he won’t support an immigration bill that is not backed by the majority of House Republicans. 

Brian Rossell, 27,  a single father who lives in Sterling, is one of the undocumented residents who would benefit from the bill. Rossell is an undocumented worker who has lived in the country for 10 years with his daughter, Kelly.

“I have never received a food stamp or Medicaid. I’m a single father, I work,” said Rossell, who this week will be sent back to South America; his daughter will have to go with him since there's nobody left here to care for her.

Those attending Wednesday’s rally called for policies that would reunite families, or help them stay together.

Under the bill, undocumented immigrants would be allowed to apply for citizenship through the new Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) program, but several enforcement “triggers,” or measures, must be in place before any undocumented immigrant can become a legal permanent resident and receive a green card.

Some of those measures include an implemented E-Verify employment verification system, visa entry/exit systems must be at all air and sea ports, 700 miles of completed fencing, and the deployment of 38,405 full-time Border Patrol agents, among other requirements

DREAMers, or those who are brought to the U.S. with family as described in the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) and for Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act (AgJobs) are both included under the RPI program, but applicants who qualify for those programs will be able to obtain legal permanent resident status sooner.

Self-described ‘Dreamer” Luisa Burgos, came from Bolivia when she was 12 and is now a student at James Madison University.

“This event is very personal to me,” Burgos said.

Wolf supports enforcing immigration laws that help undocumented immigrants become legal residents of the U.S.  He favors increased border security and the E-Verify program, which he describes on his website as an “important tool for employers to ensure that their workforce is legal.”

“We must ensure that we remain a welcome and open country to visitors and legal immigrants while ensuring that our borders are secure and immigration laws are fully enforced,” his website states.

The bill would also give immigrants who received their degrees from U.S. universities in science and other related fields more ways to obtain permanent visas and investors and other entrepreneurs hoping to bring their business to the U.S. would have additional opportunities. 

Burgos said she attends JMU thanks to the help of a private scholarship, but she said that to pursue a law degree like she hopes, ultimately she would need a permanent residency or a citizenship.

“If this law doesn’t pass I don’t know what I’ll do,” Burgos said.