Next up: immigration reform?

• Author: DiNovella, Elizabeth
• Position: Comment

The largest demonstration so far of the Obama Administration wasn't about health care or bank bailouts. Instead, it was about immigration.

On March 21, tens of thousands of people rallied at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to call for immigration reform. The demonstration, which organizers say numbered 200,000 people, marked a return to major street protests not seen since 2006.

Hundreds of community, faith-based, labor, and human rights groups formed a broad coalition and organized buses from Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, California, and elsewhere.

AFL-CIO executive vice president Arlene Holt Baker told the crowd: "The broken system is benefiting the very same corporate giants who destroyed our economy. It is allowing those corporations to exploit workers by underpaying them, or not paying them at all, simply because of their immigration status."

Press coverage of the march was overshadowed by the health care vote that was happening on Capitol Hill. But several members of Congress also addressed the rally.

"Every day without reform is a day when twelve million hard-working immigrants must live in the shadow of fear, and ... a day a family is torn apart," said Representative Nydia Velazquez, Democrat from New York and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Representative Luis Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois and the sponsor of an immigration bill in the House of Representatives, called on President Obama to make reform a reality.

"We can't wait any longer. Our friends, our families, and neighbors have waited for too long," said Gutierrez. "And while we wait, we are blamed. If America has a problem it can't solve, our enemies blame immigrants. Lost your job? Blame immigrants. Costly health care? It's those immigrants. But you know what? I say the blame game is over. For today, we've come to the front door of American history to say that the wait is over. The time is now."

Obama sent a videotaped message. "I pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on the issue," he said in the video, which was broadcast on giant TV screens. "You know as well as I do that this won't be easy, and it won't happen overnight, but if we work together across ethnic, state, and party lines, we can build a future worthy of our history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."

D espite the show of public support for immigration reform in Washington, D.C., the Administration has...