Senior Home Alarm

<< American Sign Language vs AP Spanish?!?  senior home care >>

With unemployment at a 26-year high and many Americans losing their homes why do religious groups feel that the illegals should come before Americans? Do you ever see any Church who supports illegals speak up about our own citizens going without food, while at the same time, these same Churches will supply sack of food to illegals, our Militarty personal who are homeless are less imporant to the church as Church will not offer them any help, but they sure do seem to come out in the thousands to support illegals at the same time the same churches have foresaken Americans ? With renewed debate over immigration reform expected in Congress next year, the San Fernando Valley could become a hotbed of activity as activists plan a massive rally and outreach efforts to draw attention to the cause.

Those supporters said their decision to bring the immigration reform issue into the heart of the Valley reflects a growing impatience with the pace of immigration change among immigrant advocates, labor and religious groups and a coalition of Democratic lawmakers.

"Our community, the greater community of the San Fernando Valley, has over a million immigrants all told," said businessman and immigration activist Robert Gittelson. "It is truly, truly a tragedy that probably several hundred thousand of our neighbors and our friends and our co-workers here are undocumented.

"If you think of the United States as a melting pot, we’re at ground zero right here in the San Fernando Valley."

Gittelson is among the Valley-based immigration reform advocates who last week announced they are organizing an unprecedented immigration rights rally late next month. They hope thousands of people will march from the Van Nuys Civic Center to Church on the Way on Sherman Way.

The Valley rally scheduled for Jan. 23, they said, will be in support of recently introduced legislation that would open a path to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants nationwide.

Such legislation has been hotly opposed by Republican congressional representatives, and conservative groups like the Minuteman Project, which formed several years ago to monitor illegal border crossings.
Citizens’ rights first

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, said with unemployment at a 26-year high and many Americans losing their homes, his first responsibility is for the welfare of legal citizens and residents.

"Congress must concentrate on ensuring (that) every person with a legal right to work in the United States has the opportunity for a job and does not have to compete against illegal immigrants to provide for their families," said Gallegly, whose office was the target of an interfaith rally calling for immigration reform earlier this month, in a written statement.

"We must put American families first."

Reform advocates say extending the pro-reform movement to the Valley was also part of a strategy to boost their ranks and present a more diversified face in the national debate.

"This movement is not so dissimilar from the African-American civil rights movements of the ’60s and ’70s and even today," said labor activist David Frelow of the Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition.

Invoking civil rights icons

"Let’s not forget those immigrants have helped build this great nation and those who will continue to make this a great nation."

Frelow and others invoked the memories of United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., saying they hope that next month’s immigration rally will take on the symbolism of right over might associated with historic marches led by Chavez and King.

"All of us have received some measure of grace from God, and we need to extend that grace of God to others," said the Rev. James A. Tolle, senior pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys. "And what better group of people than to extend it to the immigrants that are here in the United States.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14035779?nclick_check=1

Anybody see the church indicate helping any Americans here ?

 Mail this post Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags: Businessman, church on the way, civic center, democratic lawmakers, gittelson, ground zero, hotbed, hundred thousand, illegal immigrants, illegals, immigrant advocates, immigration reform, immigration rights, massive rally, melting pot, outreach efforts, reform advocates, religious groups, san fernando valley, valley rally, van nuys