Joliet rally seeks end to deportations
March 18, 2009
By BOB OKON
The Heralds News
JOLIET — Churches and organizations advocating an end to deportations based on immigration status expect about 1,000 people for a rally and prayers Saturday in Joliet.
The United Families tour will gather at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to tell stories about families broken up by deportations and advocate in favor of changes in immigration laws.
Similar tours have been held across the country. The movement is led by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who will be in Joliet and at a similar rally earlier on Saturday in Chicago.
Gutierrez is calling on President Barack Obama to push for changes in immigration laws and end deportation raids on workplaces.
"President Obama promised to pass immigration reform in his first term," said Ashley Moy-Wooten, suburban organizer for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The organization is based in Chicago, but Moy-Wooten works out of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be the destination point for three marches from other Joliet churches, Moy-Wooten said.
Those churches are St. John's Catholic Church on Hickory Street, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church on Benton Street, and My House of Prayer on Columbia Street.
The marches start at 6:30 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.
There have already been 10 similar stops on the United Families tour since Feb. 27 in Rhode Island, Georgia, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Texas. Four more are planned through April 4.
All the events are held at churches and include prayers as well as stories of families broken up when relatives are deported because of their immigration status, Moy-Wooten said.
"These are stories of citizens who are affected by the lack of immigration reform," she said. The rallies at some locations have met with opposition protests from members of the Minuteman Project, which advocates stricter immigration laws.
The Chicago Minuteman Project will be at the rally in Chicago but has not decided whether to protest in Joliet as well, said Rick Biesada, director of the organization.
That group is opposed to more lenient policies on deportation, Biesada said.
"Deportation is a remedy for a person entering our country illegally," he said. "Deportation is not a penalty. We return them to their country of origin."
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