June 6, 2010

As part of a nationwide effort to push immigration reform forward in Washington, D.C., hundreds of people from across the Central Valley gathered Sunday at a church in northwest Fresno to rally for the cause.

 Organizers estimated that about 800 people -- some of them bused in from Merced, Modesto and Sacramento -- packed the air-conditioned gym of St. Anthony of Padua Parish. They listened to speakers who called for reform and from illegal immigrants who told stories of being separated from their families.

 "We are asking our leaders to step up and fix this broken system," Edgar Briseno, a volunteer organizer and the St. Anthony's Hispanic ministry director, said in an interview. "We want to give families who are already here the opportunity to stay here and be part of society and not live in the shadows."

 The crowd was diverse, though mostly Hispanic. Rallyers sat in bleachers and fold-up chairs that filled the gym while waving small American flags. Kids ran around with balloons tied to their hands.

 Organizers encouraged those who attended to fill out forms that stated their votes for U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both California Democrats, depended largely on whether they supported immigration reform.

 The rally was organized by the national nonprofit PICO, or People Improving Communities Through Organizing. Similar rallies were held in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as across the United States. The rallies are in response to what activists say is a lack of forward movement on immigration reform.

 Some of those who attended the rally said they were motivated to come because of the law approved in Arizona in April that gave police authority to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. The law has been criticized as over-broad and as a tool that can be used to harass Hispanics, regardless of their legal status.

 "It's an injustice for all immigrants," Landon Cao, who was visiting from Chicago, said of the law. "It's obviously violating human rights."