Tens of thousands of people are expected to
converge in Washington, D.C., March 21 to remind President Barack
Obama of a campaign promise to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.

“It is time for Obama to deliver,” said Shuya
Ohno, assistant communication director of the National Immigration Forum, a
prominent immigrant advocacy organization.

“We are at a pivotal moment in the history of this
nation,” states the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America on its
website. “We can do nothing and watch as our families and communities continue
to be torn apart by the broken immigration system … Or we can stand up.”

“In
his State of the Union address, I think Obama mentioned 36 words about
immigration,” said Julissa
Bisono, the workplace justice
organizer at Make
the Road New York, which is organizing some
2,000 people to travel to the capital. “It’s
been a year already and immigration has been put on the back burner.”

La Opinion and The LA Times reported March 4 that
Obama met with his Domestic Policy Council to discuss jump-starting the reform
effort and has pushed Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham
(R-SC) to take the lead on crafting legislation.

“Although this is a positive step forward, we
expect the President and Congress to move beyond meetings to concrete
bipartisan legislative action,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the
National Immigration Forum, in a March 5 statement.

The campaign says it has organized approximately
150 buses to bring New Yorkers to Washington
for the March for America.

“Immigration is an absolute part of the American
story,” Ohno said. “This is for all Americans who really care about moving this
country forward.”