CPTnet
15 April 2009
BORDERLANDS: God will change the politicians’ hearts

by Haven Whiteside

[From Palm Sunday to Good Friday, approximately 1300 pilgrims united in Georgia’s first Holy Week Pilgrimage for Immigrants, a prayerful walk trekking fifty miles through North Georgia and metro Atlanta to express solidarity with immigrants.  The Pilgrimage called for the end of law enforcement raids that separate families, the passage of humane immigration reform and the revision of trade policies that currently increase unauthorized immigration.  CPT's Steering Committee Chair, Anton Flores, was a key organizer, and CPTer Haven Whiteside was one of the core groups of walkers.  See www.drivefast.wordpress.com  for more information and pictures.]

We were on the fifth day of the Pilgrimage for Immigrants, 5-10 April 2009, in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia.  I was having lunch with Joaquin, a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent.  He has been here for twenty years, and lives in the Atlanta area with his wife and four children.  She is Hispanic, a fourth generation American, and their children are all citizens by birth.  Interestingly, he said that English is the first language of his children, although they are all bilingual.  Work is slow these days, and he took the day off for the pilgrimage.  His reason?  To support change in immigration policy so families will not be broken up.  When asked how that could happen, he said, “Politicians do not want to change, but we are praying to God, and God can change the politicians’ hearts.”

Organizations sponsoring the Pilgrimage included Alterna, Atlantans Building Leadership and Empowerment (ABLE), Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Justice for Immigrants Campaign, Nipponzan Myohoji Atlanta Dojo, and several Catholic and Protestant churches in the area.  One of the lead organizers and CPT steering committee chair, Anton Flores, described this interfaith pilgrimage as a prayer with our feet for a spirit of solidarity that transcends borders.  The walk is based on a faith that bids us to overcome discrimination and violence and build just and loving relationships with immigrants.

The pilgrimage covered about ten miles per day from Gainesville to Atlanta.  A few pilgrims walked the entire distance, but the primary focus was on local participation, with several hundred people walking each day in their own neighborhood.  By the end of the week, 1300 people had participated.  Who were these people?  Latinos, Anglos, Asians and African-Americans.  Because young people were on Spring Break, they joined the pilgrimage in great numbers.  A large number of workers took a day off for this purpose.  Old people participated as well, and babies in strollers, representing hope for the future.  

Most of those whom I talked to were permanent residents or citizens who had been in this country for years, but they all were concerned about families.  We heard case after case where most of the members of a family have legal status, but the mother or father is undocumented.  If that person is deported, the family is broken up.  The letter of the law conflicts with American family values, so the pilgrims are hoping for immigration reform that will allow law-abiding immigrants a path to legal status.

Two years ago, people had high hopes for comprehensive immigration reform legislation, but Congress dropped that initiative when public opposition emerged.  So this Holy Week pilgrimage was not a march, not a protest, but a prayerful walk in solidarity with families, and with the hope that God will change the politicians’ hearts.