Covering The Fight for Immigration Reform

Last month, my cameraman Eric and I drove 4 hours to Washington DC to cover the "Reform Immigration for America March." Normally, my beat is the NY metro area but being the closest correspondent to our nation's capital, I volunteered to cover this important and historic demonstration.

And there we were, among 250 thousand people who had traveled from every corner of this country to step out of the shadows and make their voices heard in demand of comprehensive immigration reform. This is by far the biggest event I have ever covered and on my way, I was so nervous that we had to stop a few times to make sure the butterflies in my stomach had settled. The significance of what was about to happen was not lost on my small crew and I just wanted to make sure that I did it justice.

Now, as I sit and look back at this experience, I can truly say that it has been one of the most significant in my short journalistic career. Not because of the reports I filed for my newscasts the next day, but because of the people that I met, the stories that I heard and the up close and personal look at the real consequences of this country's lack of a just immigration law.

I met students fighting for the right to go to college, who know that otherwise their lives and their potential will fall short of what they are capable. I spoke to families fighting to stay together, the fear of deportation hovering over their heads like a dark cloud... jobs, homes and dreams lost. I couldn't help but cry listening to one woman who lost her daughter in Afghanistan, fighting this country's wars abroad, her body so mangled that the Armed Forces couldn't even let the family see the corpse. But now her life is falling apart. Her husband faces deportation even as they still struggle with the sadness and depression of losing a child. There were union bosses asking for livable wages for their laborers, as well as religious and community leaders calling for compassion from our politicians.

And at the moment, I realized why it is that I decided to do what I do. Yes, I got the "big" interviews as we call them in the business- the politicians, Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson, and even a few big name celebrities who all decided to show their support for this cause. But more importantly, I was able to give a voice to the people themselves, the masses who came in buses, trains and a few who even walked across state lines to say "we are here, we work hard, so what are you going to do with us?" And their stories and struggles have stayed with me ever since. There was an overwhelming sense of hope and dignity that transcended mere politics- pretty powerful stuff for a reporter!

However, since that march, the issue of immigration reform has once again come to the forefront, but this time in a much less hopeful manner. Most recently, my network, and specifically, our late news program Mega News Nocturno, has been following closely the recent passing of Arizona's SB-1070 and the marches and boycotts currently being organized in response. SB1070 is a racially charged law that allows police officers to ask for documentation of any person they "reasonably suspect" is in the country illegally. And while much of the English speaking media has focused on the mechanics of how people are migrating, whether its legal or illegal, I think it's important for media outlets like mine to once again, just as what happened in DC, focus on the human aspect of this debate. How are these laws, or lack thereof, affecting families, veterans, workers, and citizens? Very often the politicians and pundits forget that we are in fact talking about human beings and their hopes and dreams for better lives , just like any one of us. As an immigrant,first generation American myself, I feel it is my duty to make sure we remind them.