With signs begging, "Please don’t deport my parents," about 1,000 protesters marched in midtown yesterday to demand fairness in immigration reform.
"I’m scared for my mom," said 11-year-old Carlos Arellano of Bushwick, Brooklyn, who took part in his third march with his mother, (Make the Road by Walking member) Silvia Orea, 31, who is from Puebla, Mexico. Carlos and his brother Eric, 8, were born here.
"I think Immigration is going to get my mom," Carlos said.
This week, the Senate is expected to pass a bill that would create a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and make English the national language. The bill also would include a guest worker program and limited avenues to legalization for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
But the march’s organizer, The New York Immigration Coalition (Make the Road by Walking is a leading member of the coalition), called for a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would allow more illegal aliens to stay in the U.S.
The coalition’s director, Chung-Wha Hong, said lawmakers need to amend the current bill to allow undocumented immigrants in the country since January to get on a path to legalization.