HOUSTON — As the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border continues to unfold, local calls for immigration reform are growing.
There may not be many of them, but a small of group of people is fighting to bring attention to the struggles millions of immigrants in this country face every day.
“Today we say no more," said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, an immigrant rights organization. "And today as Texans we stand together to call for attention, to call for justice and to call for a resolve for our lives because we can’t keep living months at a time.”
FIEL, along with Texas Organizing Project which works to give people of color the power and representation they deserve, hit the road from Houston to Austin on Saturday morning.
Along the way, the caravan is raising their voices against what they call Governor Greg Abbott’s attack on immigrants.
The groups want to see lawmakers carve a pathway to citizenship.
“This is a major step for the Hispanic community, because we have been living in the shadows for over more than 20 years already," said Damaris Gonzalez with TOP.
She said the immigrant community went through a lot of challenges during the Trump administration.
“With this proposal for pathway to citizenship, not only for essential workers, for farm workers, DACA recipients and TPS holders, opens the door for many families to fix their immigration status,” Gonzalez said.
She said it’s extra important, because immigrant families have been some of the most affected during the pandemic.
“Not only because they’re the ones that are getting sick, but also because they’re losing their jobs, they’re losing their income, and they don’t have any kind of form of relief, neither from the federal, nor local, nor state governments,” Gonzalez said.
In Austin, the Houston caravan rallied with other groups outside of the governor’s mansion.
As their numbers grow, they said their message only gets louder.