Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) joined other community leaders and area families at a town hall meeting to raise awareness about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.  The gathering at Our Lady Queen of Angels, La Placita Church, in Downtown was part of a national five-week family unity campaign involving leaders and advocates in 17 major American cities who are organizing community meetings, prayer vigils and town hall meetings to document the many family hardships caused by our nation’s unjust immigration laws.  Among the stories shared at the meeting, the congresswoman introduced Jack Barrios, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and a U.S. citizen, whose wife is in danger of deportation.  Click here to read this full testimony.  Pictured in the first photo from left to right: Congresswoman Diane Watson (CA-33); Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (CA-38); Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA-31); and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34).  The second photo was taken at a press conference directly before the town hall meeting.

The congresswoman made the following remarks:

“Good evening and welcome to La Placita Church and the 34th Congressional District.  This church, built in La Placita by immigrants and for decades a sanctuary for immigrants is the perfect setting for this gathering of Family Unity.  La Placita was founded only a few years after the birth of our nation.  Then as now, its congregation was composed of men and women who journeyed from distant lands to start a new life.  They established a tiny village in a vast wilderness and through their sweat and toil, that remote outpost grew into a town, then into a city, and finally into this sprawling metropolis.

Today a new generation of immigrants is helping to build a stronger America.  Running small businesses and raising families, they contribute daily to their communities and our country.  Yet our broken immigration system often fails to recognize that fact with tragic consequences as we will hear tonight.  I take this opportunity to thank Father Lozano and Father Estrada for hosting this important event, Reverend Margarita Reyes and Pastor Don Stiltner who will be giving the opening prayers, and my colleagues from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus: Congresswoman Grace Napolitano and Congressman Xavier Becerra.  I also want to thank our good friend and colleague Congresswoman Diane Watson for being here this evening.  Each one of these dynamic congressional leaders works tirelessly on behalf of our Latino and immigrant communities.  I also thank their staff and mine for all their hard work to make this evening possible.

It is important for you to know that tonight’s event is just one of more than 17 other events being held across the country by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.  In cities from San Francisco to Orlando, friends and neighbors are gathering in common purpose to tell their stories and help lay the foundation for comprehensive immigration reform to end the injustice of a system that:

• Permits raids and a cruel detention system that deprives immigrants of basic human rights and justice;
• Creates an atmosphere of fear and the exploitation of workers;
• And allows for a shortage of visas that keeps families apart.

Tonight we will hear from four brave persons whose lives have been shattered as a result of our misguided and unjust immigration system.  Unfortunately, their stories and that of thousands of other immigrants are increasingly common and offer painful evidence of the human toll our immigration system is taking.  I have no doubt, however, that because of you and the support and unity in this room, and throughout the country, we will emerge victorious.  Again thank you for being here.”
 

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