Congressman Moran's News Commentary

Rallies held across the country are heralding in a new era for civil rights in our country. Immigration reform is the topic of the day here in the U.S. In Los Angelos, Detroit, Houston, Columbia, New York, Washington D.C. and other U.S. cities large and small, the men and women who service our cars, work in our fields, prepare our food, work in our factories and clean our office buildings have united, declaring they are not criminals and are only interested in working hard and becoming a part of the American dream.

On the National Mall, I addressed Tuesday’s rally along with Senator Kennedy and Maryland Congressman Al Wynn. An exuberant, American-flag-waving, Pledge-of-Allegiance singing crowd, the audience was filled with families who filed orderly to the stage on 7th Street . As peaceful a group as I have ever witnessed in such large numbers, the tens of thousands of onlookers cheered speakers including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, offering a message of “Si se puede” -- “Yes, we can.”

The trigger for this outpouring of civil protest was a bill, H.R. 4437, sponsored by Representative Jim Sensenbrenner and passed by the House of Representatives. It essentially makes hardworking immigrants felons and punishes any person or organization that provides support of any kind to undocumented immigrants including food, shelter and education. As Senator Hilary Clinton has said, this bill would make Jesus Christ a felon.

It is clear to every American that our immigration system is broken and needs major repair. The debate in Congress is essentially between a narrow “repair” that relies on fences and our criminal laws to fix the problem, and a more comprehensive “repair” that includes efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration and a plan to give current undocumented immigrants permission to stay and an opportunity to earn citizenship.

In my view, it would be impossible and immoral to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building fences and trying to track down and uproot 11 million plus people, most of whom contribute to our society and work to make our economy stronger. The comprehensive immigration reform bill being advanced by Senators Kennedy and McCain is a good bipartisan proposal that should serve as the model for whatever Congress enacts. It creates a guest worker visa program for future immigrants and, for today’s undocumented immigrants, provides a route for them to earn citizenship.

The past week’s immigration rallies have shifted the debate on a contentious issue in a way seldom seen in politics. These outpourings may well go down as a seminal moment in U.S. history. With a continuation of their message, the marchers’ goal of securing political respect and an understanding from the American people that immigrants are an integral part of the fabric of our society may ultimately be fulfilled.