Immigrant Families to Demand Immigration Reform, Give Senate March 21st Deadline to Introduce Legislation With Path To Citizenship

Immigrant Families to Demand Immigration Reform, Give Senate March 21^st Deadline to Introduce Legislation With Path To Citizenship

National storytelling bus tour culminates on Capitol Hill

Families will tell their stories to Congress, rally for pathway to citizenship

(WASHINGTON)—The nearly 3-week, 19-state, 90-city national Keeping Families Together bus tour fueled by immigrants stories will end on Wednesday, March 13, in Washington with a hearing and meetings with Congress. During the bus tour that has taken place in all areas of the country, immigrant families have been demanding a path to citizenship and will press that demand on Capitol Hill.

At the hearing, more than 100 immigrants who were on the bus tour will tell their stories to members of Congress, including some Senators who are part of the Gang of 8. Some families will go to congressional offices to tell their stories.

Here are details:

WHO:                    110 Immigrant Families, telling stories dealing with broken immigration system

                                Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois

                                Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California

                                Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas

                                Rep. Juan Vargas, D-California

                                Bishop Minerva Carcaño, United Methodist Church

WHAT:                  Keeping Families Together – March, Demonstration, and People’s Hearing on Immigration Reform

Story Tour demand immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship

WHEN:                 Wednesday, March 13, 2013

WHERE:

**1 p.m.: Keeping Families Together – People’s Hearing on Immigration Reform, Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-106

**2 p.m.: Visits to Senate offices.

The Keeping Families Together Story Tour was launched by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a coalition of the largest grassroots immigrant rights organizations. FIRM has issued a March 21^st deadline to the Senate to introduce a comprehensive immigration bill that contains a path to citizenship.

The stories are highlighted daily on the Keeping Families Together storytelling website and the FIRM Facebook page.

The tour traveled through seven regions: Southwest (California, Arizona, Nevada), Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana), Mountain West (Colorado), Great Lakes (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio), New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island), Mid Atlantic (New York) and the Southeast (Florida, North Carolina).

Families who could not travel with the bus were able to participate in a virtual bus tour by sharing their stories at www.keepingfamiliestogether.net or www.familiasunidasahora.net.

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