In Plea for Reform, Immigrants Call on President and God

NEW YORK – When the New York Hispanic Clergy Coalition hosted a vigil in Battery Park today, patrons were lighting candles for Obama, not God.
Coalition members and their supporters are calling for Obama to institute a new law that would prevent deportation of illegal immigrants whose children are US citizens. They believe it is unfair to split up families and prevent parents from staying in the country and working towards citizenship.
Many religious figures were in attendance at the vigil. Among them was Reverend Franklin Simpson, pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in the Bronx.
“The Lord put President Obama in the place he is in today to protect the immigrants of this nation,” declared Simpson to thunderous applause.
The vigil was held in response to increased policing of immigration laws. Attendees wished to urge politicians to loosen up on penalizing employers for hiring illegal immigrants and stop cities and counties from giving police the power to enforce such acts.
The coalition, whose members include Pentecostal clergy and local politicians, has been outspoken about immigration reform in recent weeks. State Senator Ruben Diaz, who is the coalition’s president, accused President Obama of not making immigration rights a priority.
“When Obama was a candidate, he promised he would solve the problem of immigration,” Diaz said. “What’s taking him so long? He said the problem was that the Republicans were in charge. Now the Democrats are in charge. So what’s the problem? We’re here to tell the government to stop the nonsense.”
Reverend Simpson, 65, of the Bronx, is pastor of the Second Eternal Refuge Church in the Bronx. Also a psychiatrist, he asserts that the anger children feel when their parents are deported will translate into more severe problems in adulthood if our laws won’t protect them.
“If you leave children here with no parents, they will have anger towards their country and they will have no direction in life,” he said. “Twenty years down the line, this can be very detrimental for this nation.”
The issue of families being torn apart on the basis of illegal citizenship was the most prevalent issue of the day.
Carmen Ramos, 39, of the Bronx, is an avid supporter of the New York Hispanic Clergy Coalition. She nodded her head vigorously in agreement with the speeches at the vigil and yells out hardy “amens” at the end of all the sermons.
“Separating families just because they’re not legal – that’s the worst thing you can do,” she said. “Those children are going to go into foster care, and do you think they’ll be treated right?”
Ramos thinks that parents who are illegal immigrants and have children who are citizens of the US should be granted automatic citizenship themselves.
Reverend Agustin Quiles, 62, of Coney Island, is pastor of Iglesia Pentecostal de Sesucristo in Brooklyn and also a member of the coalition.
“We are asking the government to give immigrants some kind of relief from persecution, discrimination, and the splitting up of families,” he said. “We are telling our politicians to do the best thing for families. Not all illegal immigrants are criminals. Some of them are hard-working people who pay taxes.”
Many attendees feel disenchanted with Obama, who they thought was more pro-immigrant when running for president than he has actually proved to be since elected.
“We don’t want him [Obama] to forget about immigration reform,” Reverend Simpson said. “Lord, remind him! Go inside his mind and remind him that he, as an immigrant, has to remember his promise to other immigrants, in the name of Jesus.”
If any one in the crowd noticed the Reverend Simpson’s blunder, they kept it to themselves. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawai and is therefore not an immigrant.