Immigration activists walk 48 miles across Bay Area to push for clear path to citizenship
Immigration activists are walking 48 miles from San Jose to San Francisco to call for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
"The 11 million people in this country who have lived here for decades deserve a reasonable path to be able to adjust their status," said Renee Saucedo with the Northern California Coalition for Just Immigration Reform.
Organizers say 250 people registered for the walk, which will stop in Menlo Park Saturday and South San Francisco Sunday before ending in front of San Francisco's city hall for a rally at 3 p.m. on Monday.
The group is urging Congress to support two bills - one in the House and one in the Senate, both introduced by California lawmakers - that would expand eligibility for what's known as the Registry Program.
The program allows some undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for a long time to get lawful permanent resident status.
Currently, the law only applies to people who entered the country before 1972.
"Every so many years it was supposed to be reviewed and then give amnesty to a certain amount of people, right? Well, last time that was done was with Reagan in '86 so it’s been too long," said Marisa Almor, who helps immigrants with legal services.
If the bills are passed, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years, paid taxes and have a clean criminal record would be eligible. Almor estimates that would be about 8 million people.
"If we don’t find pathways for citizenship, we’re only hurting ourselves," said Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who showed her support at the march.
Chavez said immigrants are essential to our economy, especially the agricultural industry.
"When we’re talking about immigration reform, we’re talking about making sure that our economy is stable. We’re talking about making sure that we don’t have people moving in and out of our communities, our neighborhoods are stable, that our schools are stable," she said.
And with the presidential election season in full swing, this group is pushing even more for immigration reform.
"To Donald Trump, we won’t tolerate mass deportations. And to Kamala Harris, you need to put a path to citizenship through the already existing registry process – central in your immigration agenda," said Saucedo.