Thousands of immigrants and human rights activists are converging Wednesday for a rally in Washington to push for Congress to pass immigration reform into law.
Starting at 3 p.m. Wednesday, immigration supporters from around the nation will meet at the U.S. Capitol Building, where they will launch a demonstration urging legislators in Washington to act on comprehensive immigration reform.
One such person that will be there is Diana Colin, a community organizer from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
"My parents are undocumented," she told 89.3 Southern California Public Radio. "My brother is a deferred action recipient and I have a younger brother and a sister who are citizens."
Meanwhile, caravans of buses have departed from as far away as Alabama filled with supporters of the immigration reform push, an issue that has touched the lives of many supporters, as Jose Perez, 17, could attest. Perez is traveling with his brother Victor Palifox, 21, to the rally in the hopes of helping their parents, who are immigrants.
"I'm going to Washington D.C. to stand up for my family," Perez told ABC News Univision. "To have comprehensive immigration reform that not only includes us the DREAMers, but also our parents."
The nationwide push to pass immigration reform has been steadily gaining ground since November, when a record swell of Latino voters cast their ballots for President Obama in the presidential elections. A day before the planned rally, students and faculty at Wagner College in Staten Island held an immigration rally of their own.
New York State Assemblyman Matthew Titone, D-North Shore, spoke about the importance of passing the DREAM Act in order to give the children of undocumented immigrants the federally-funded tuition aid they need to attend college.
"For me, it simply is common sense. It's about equal opportunity and it's about boosting the revenue stream here in New York State," Titone said, as reported by the Staten Island Advance.
"Kids who go to college are inclined to make $25,000 more annually than a person who only has a high school diploma. That transfers revenue for the state. Do the math and tell me this is nothing more than a sound investment in our future," he said.
The growing cry for immigration reform has been a motivating factor for legislators in Washington to pass legislation that would change the nation's current immigration laws. The biggest hope for that change to happen rests on the bipartisan U.S. Senate panel working on a bill that would both grant a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. while securing the border and forcing businesses to check the immigration status of workers they hire.
That bill could be coming much sooner than people think, according to several reports.
The Washington Post reported that the panel expects to announce the bill by early next week according to people familiar with the negotiations.
Earlier this week, members of the panel told political talk shows that the panel was close to finalizing the deal on the immigration proposal, although others such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have called those reports premature and cautioned against rushing the legislation through Congress.
Sources told the Post that weeks of debate on the bill, during which amendments could be added, are likely to start in May.
The Hill.com reports that senate sources say that the panel is expecting to release the bill on Thursday.
Meanwhile, another bipartisan group, this one from the U.S. House of Representatives, is working on their own immigration reform bill-a proposal that is independent of the Senate group's bill. A Democratic adie with knowledge of the talks said that the group intends to meet this week.
"The House group is getting closer and will introduce their bill when it is ready," the aide said, "but the process has been very independent from the Senate process both in terms of timing and substance."
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