Social Movement Delivers Letter to U.S. Ambassador

Carrying banners reading "Respect Human Rights, No to Racism in the United States," union and community activists marched to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador yesterday to express their solidarity with immigrants in the United States. The protestors delivered a letter to the Ambassador demanding that the U.S. government carry out a real immigration reform which both respects immigrant rights and recognizes the critical role they play in holding up the U.S. and their home countries' economies. The protesters also denounced President Saca's inaction in the debate over immigration reform.

Immigration is a critical issue for Salvadorans - a large percentage of Salvadoran families have at least one family member in the United States, and the remittances they send to El Salvador is the financial backbone of the national economy, making up the single largest percentage of the GDP. For this reason Saca has had to pay lip service to supporting Salvadoran immigrants, purporting to be lobbying for their interests. However, the reality is that Saca's role in the immigration debate has been marked by constantly siding with Bush on the issue. When pushed to at least take a stand against the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a position many Latin American presidents took publicly, Saca remained silent, saying he didn't want to interfere in U.S. sovereignty.

FMLN leaders and deputies accompanied yesterday's march. The deputies pointed to the root issues that cause the cycle of immigration, particularly the failing economic model in El Salvador that forces people to emigrate in search of economic survival. The FMLN and the social movement activists in the streets yesterday demanded that immigration reform not criminalize immigrants or lead to any form of legalized slavery, or guest worker program, but rather that a real immigration reform allow for a path to permanent residency for immigrants. CISPES is supporting the April 10th immigrant rights actions across the United States, and committees in cities including Seattle, Boston, and New York will be participating in the marches. Information about those actions is available at www.april10.org