For three days, all they did was walk.
The immigrant rights activists walked, despite blisters forming on their feet and their shoes wearing thin, despite the physical and emotional toll it was taking on their bodies, and despite the cold air that blew against their faces. They walked for 60 miles because, if nothing else, it forced the people around them to pay attention.
Colorado immigrants and their allies joined for all or part of the journey from Denver to Greeley earlier this month in a pilgrimage calling for the state’s congressional leaders to support legislation that would expand a pathway to citizenship for immigrants lacking legal status. A federal bill would update what’s known as the immigration registry, which has been used in the past to grant amnesty to waves of immigrants who entered the country without authorization.
More than a dozen advocates joined the long walk at stops along the way, while a handful — all immigrants themselves — made the entire journey. The participants stopped in Denver, Northglenn, Brighton, Fort Lupton, Platteville and Greeley, sleeping in churches at night. They met with staff members representing Colorado’s congressional leaders as well as with community members.
“Our community is determined to get (a path to citizenship), no matter how long or how hard the road is,” said Raquel Lane-Arellano, a spokesperson for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
The immigration registry, created by Congress in 1929, has allowed people who entered the United States without documentation before a certain date to apply for permanent residency if they are not subject to deportation for other reasons. Since the registry’s establishment, the cutoff date has been updated four times — most recently extended to apply to arrivals by Jan. 1, 1972, in a change approved in 1986, when President Ronald Reagan was in office.
At the time, Reagan, a Republican, also granted amnesty for immigrant children without documentation through an executive order.
Supporters of another update say it’s one of the easiest ways to offer a quick legal path to permanent residency for more than 8 million immigrants who have lived in the country for years, setting down roots. They now rely on a patchwork of immigration laws that apply only to some immigrants — and they can only look for hope to a divided Congress that for years has failed to pass fixes for the broken immigration system.
As broader immigration reform bills proposing registry updates have stalled in recent years, at least part of the opposition has stemmed from a resistance by more conservative elected leaders to grant legal status to large groups of people who entered the country without authorization. Opponents of the idea tend to favor stronger enforcement of existing immigration laws, including stepped-up border security and, in some cases, more deportations.
Lane-Arrellano, whose family immigrated from Mexico, said she has relatives who benefited from the last registry update decades ago. Others are “forced to live in unnecessary substandard status because Congress refuses to take action,” she said, even though they’ve lived in and contributed to the U.S. for decades.
For Leticia Ramirez, a 46-year-old mother of three who has lived in Colorado for 21 years since coming from Mexico, a big part of the pilgrimage was also about informing the community. She said the participants had great discussions at some of the churches where they stayed.
“It gave us the opportunity to talk to more people who want to join this movement,” she said through a Spanish translator.
Is update to registry overdue?
Advocates say it’s long past time to update the cutoff date for the registry. As drafted, the bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, would allow an immigrant to apply for permanent resident status seven years after they entered the country.
That would change the fixed cutoff date to a rolling date that, if the legislation wins approval in the coming year, initially would move up to 2017.
Though Democratic lawmakers often support immigration reforms that include paths to citizenship, not all Colorado Democrats in Congress have voiced support.
That’s partly why the activists chose to walk at the start of December through the state’s 8th Congressional District, represented by first-term U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo.
Caraveo’s parents benefited from the last registry update because they had entered the country in the 1970s. But the congresswoman told The Denver Post that she didn’t see it as likely that a registry update bill would be introduced under the current House speaker or have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House.
Plus, it’s not part of a comprehensive immigration reform package — and doesn’t have a funding mechanism set out, Caraveo said.
While Democratic Reps. Brittany Pettersen, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Diana DeGette have signed onto a similar House bill, Caraveo has not. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, also Democrats, have not signed onto the Senate version.
Hickenlooper’s staff has spoken to advocates and is looking into the bill, spokesperson Kaitlin Hooker said. Bennet’s office did not return a request for comment.
Caraveo said a more far-reaching effort is needed to reach a consensus between the political parties on border security, the asylum system and a legal pathway to citizenship for people who have lived, worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for decades.
Her district, she added, is evenly split politically, so she believes her constituents would appreciate bipartisan solutions.
Greeley, where the pilgrimage ended, is just outside the large 4th Congressional District, represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck. In a written statement, Buck spokesperson Joe Jackson said the congressman “does not support legislation incentivizing illegal immigration or mass amnesty.”
The Colorado immigrant advocates say they, too, would like to see more sweeping reform. They’ve heavily opposed the only movement recently — hardline Republicans’ push, so far unsuccessful, for President Joe Biden and the Democrats to agree to tougher border security and asylum policies in exchange for war aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“I feel that responsibility” to push for change
Homero Ocon, a 53-year-old Mexican immigrant, was among the handful of people who walked the entire 60 miles of the pilgrimage. Ocon has been in Colorado since he first immigrated to the United States 24 years ago in search of a better life. He moved to Denver because that’s where his sister lived.
In 2022, he also took part in a 40-day bike ride from Denver to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness of immigration reform.
“I feel that responsibility,” Ocon said of his decision to take part in the three-day walk. “We are already small but a really close group, (a) close team — we are committed to do what we need to do to pass immigration reform.”
Ocon said he applied for permanent residency through his wife. But that happened recently, after years spent living in fear while undocumented, unable to travel back to his home country to see his family or even attend his grandmother’s funeral.
He picked up whatever work he could to make ends meet, he said. He watched immigrants working essential jobs die during the pandemic because they didn’t have health care. Others worked into their 70s or until employers no longer wanted them, because they had no retirement savings.
For Ramirez, the pilgrimage was exhausting, but she kept “the why” in her mind to help propel her forward.
She said she’s been disappointed by Caraveo, the state’s first Latina congresswoman, who won election in 2022. Caraveo hasn’t supported a registry update but has supported legislation that would allow the deportation of undocumented immigrants who assault first responders, Ramirez said.
Ramirez is urging more people to get informed and call for reform.
Ocon says he’s become frutsrated, and a little jaded, by the lack of progress. He doesn’t know if political leaders will support a path toward citizenship, but he still believes in pushing for change.
“We still have faith that people get together and get more ideas and ways to put pressure (on politicians) for something to happen,” he said.
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