"Please don't deport Daddy"

Protesters began their march early Saturday morning in a hot Houston neighborhood mostly occupied by Mexican-Americans. 300-400 people of all ages beat drums and marched, calling for law makers to create a far-reaching immigration policy to allow undocumented workers to stay in the states and with their families. Grace Bandercan, a 5 year old supporter held a sign that read, "Please don't deport my Daddy." Grace and her mother are American citizens, and her father, an immigrant construction worker is trying desperately to obtain legal papers. Grace's mother told reporters that her husband pays his taxes and is a good citizen, if only the government would recognize him.
“They need to remember the human side of things,” said Elizabeth Bandercan, referring to immigration enforcement officials. “We just want to live as a family.”
MSNBCStory

Meanwhile, on his weekly radio broadcast President Bush urged lawmakers to come together on immigration policies. Bush called it, “a critical challenge” before the nation, which is presently home to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.“We need a system where our laws are respected. We need a system that meets the legitimate needs of our economy. And we need a system that treats people with dignity and helps newcomers assimilate into our society,” Bush said.
Bush also challenged Congress, who are currently at a stalemate to come to a decision on immigration, arguing that his proposal doesn't mean amnesty. A recent poll done by the Wall street Journal and NBC News shows that 51% of Americans oppose Bush's immigration proposal offering a path to legal status, while 44% are in favor. Bush's argument is that illegal immigrants are taking the jobs of American citizens. Republicans proposed the idea that illegal immigrants should have to pay a fine of $10,000 to become legal citizens, but this idea was shot down by Bush, saying that illegal immigrants shouldn't;t be pushed to the front of the line, making immigrants who haven't broken the laws wait even longer to obtain citizenship. VideoLink

Also on Saturday, President Bush spoke at Miami-Dade College in Miami about immigration, a move that took some say took a lot of nerve seeing as though more than half of the graduating students were from a background not American. His message to the new grads was to get their elected officials in Washington going and make a decision about the immigration laws.
“You see every day the values of hard work, and family, and faith that immigrants bring,”the president said. “This experience gives you a special responsibility to make your voices heard.”
Bush spoke of how our immigration system is badly broken by saying,“We must address all elements of this problem together — or none of them will be solved at all."MiamiDade

As the elections draw near and Presidential candidates make their campaigns it will be interesting to see which way the public leans; will we remember that we all started off as immigrants at one point, or will we seek to send newcomers home with the message from America being, you're not welcome?