Observations from the Familias Unidas, (Families United) Community Meeting presented by Congressman Joe Baca

Robert Gittelson provided some “Observations from the Familias Unidas, (Families United) Community Meeting presented by Congressman Joe Baca” yesterday:

My wife Patricia and I drove out to Ontario, Ca. this morning, (about 70 miles from our L.A. home), to attend the Community Meeting for Families of Immigrants at the St. George Catholic Church. This was the 3rd stop of a 17 stop tour by Congressman Luis Gutierrez, in his drive to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform this year. At this meeting, he was joined by the Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Joe Baca, who is the Congressman for the San Bernardino district, where this meeting was held.

When we arrived at the church, we had to pass through a human gauntlet of Restrictionist protestors that were trying to intimidate the attendees from entering the church grounds. Frankly, the spectacle of watching grown men and women humiliate themselves while wearing or draped in American Flags, and chanting hate filled slogans and racial epithets, would have been comical, were it not so infuriating and sad. It drove home the point that when you chant hate speech, it doesn’t matter whether you drape yourself in a red, white, and blue flag, or a white sheet. You are still a xenophobe.

While I was extremely tempted to go and tell the Restrictionists what they can do with their hateful rhetoric, I decided to turn the other cheek, since experience has taught we that they would have loved for me to rise to their bait, but that nothing that I or anyone else could say would change any of the minds, let alone their behavior. During the church service and rally, several of the speakers referenced these hate mongers. One of the ministers made a poignant comment, when he noted that “everyone knows that a bulldog can take a skunk, but that it wasn’t worth the trouble.”

As to the rally/church service, it was extremely moving. At times, such as when several teenagers tearfully and bravely stood up and gave their testimonies regarding their awful experiences and memories of the last times that they saw their parents or loved ones, (when ICE showed up at their doors in the middle of the night, warrants in hand), everyone in the church was moved to tears. At other times, the rally was very uplifting and inspiring. Several community and religious leaders spoke, such as Dr. Jose Calderon, a Profession of Latino and Latina Studies at Pitzer College, and Rev. Bishop Gerald Barnes, Diocese of San Bernadino.

Joe Baca, who is very clearly loved by his constituents, spoke emphatically about the need for CIR and family unification. He made it clear that he intends to work tirelessly on this issue until it is the law of the land.

Luis Gutierrez, (who introduced the STRIVE Act in 2007), spoke movingly and with confidence, as he expressed his plan to meet with President Obama in a few weeks, to press for CIR, and to hand him the 6,000 signed petitions from his first 2 meetings, as well as the thousands more that he will collect from the next 15 meetings. I would also note that Congressman Gutierrez referenced the racist and hateful remarks by the protestors in front of the church entrance. He spoke of our nation’s history, and that in the 1850’s these same types of protestors used hate speech against the Irish. He noted that at the turn of the 20th century, they targeted the Italians with their bigotry. That was soon followed by women suffragettes, who were spit on in the streets. He spoke of the 1960’s when the targets of this hate were the blacks. He closed by noting that all of the above groups overcame adversity, and won their rights. Now, he said, it was time for the undocumented immigrants to receive their rights. I came away with the strong sense that he would fight and push and work for CIR until it is the law.

KJ