Join Local Immigration Caravan

Reform Immigration for America is sponsoring a caravan across New York State to ask our Congressional Representatives to sponsor Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Resolutions and statements of support from local organizations will be presented to our Congresspeople.

Please join the Caravan on Wednesday, February 17.

The Caravan will stop at Rep. Eric Massa’s office in Pittsford on Feb. 17m at 11 am and at

Rep. Chris Lee’s office in Greece at 1:30 pm

and then go to the Batavia Detention Center.

You are welcome to join the Caravan for part or all of the day.

The road trip, dubbed the “New York Road Trip for Our Future,” coordinated in this area by a coalition of local groups in collaboration with the statewide New York Immigration Coalition and the national Reform Immigration for America campaign, was organized to step up pressure on elected leaders to get moving on long-overdue reform of our immigration laws.

“In the course of this five-day trip, nearly 5,000 people will be deported and more than 5,000 will be detained, and we’ll be no closer to a workable, common-sense immigration system that serves the national interest. So we’re taking to the road, traveling across the state, bringing our message to our representatives on their home turf, joining our voices with their constituents, and making it clear that the typical Washington response of doing nothing is simply not acceptable.” (Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the NY Immigration Coalition)

Rochester area residents join the caravan, recognizing ongoing incidents in our own region that continue to mount: residents walking to church have been stopped by local police and turned over to immigration authorities, spreading fear across the town of Sodus; Border patrol agents have questioned passengers’ immigration status on Amtrak trains, Greyhound buses and the GotoBus that leaves for NYC from Monroe Ave. and families have been divided when a parent is detained.

DATE: Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

TIMES AND LOCATIONS:
9:00 am Sodus, NY; rally and prayer; St. John’s Episcopal Church, 54 Main St.
11:00 am, arrive at Rep. Eric Massa’s office, 1 Grove Street, Pittsford; rally and meeting with his staff.
1:30 pm, arrive at Rep. Chris Lee’s office, 1577 West Ridge Road, Greece; rally and meeting with his staff.
2:00 pm, departure from Greece, passing through Albion and Elba via Rt. 104 W and Rt 98 S, towards Batavia
3:15 pm, Federal Immigration Detention Center, 4250 Federal Drive, Batavia; after passing by the Detention Center, a gathering will be held at the First Presbyterian Church, 300 East Main St., Batavia – the final stop for local participants.

SPONSORS: CITA (Independent Farmworkers’ Center); ROCLA (Rochester Committee on Latin America); MSS (Migrant Support Services of Wayne County); TIAR (The Interfaith Alliance of Rochester); Catholic Diocese of Rochester, Office of Migrant Ministry; Session of the Downtown Presbyterian Church; Genesee Valley Chapter of NYCLU (New York Civil Liberties Union); Sisters of St. Joseph; RAIR (Rochester Alliance for Immigration Reform); Sisters of Mercy; SWAA-Rochester (Social Welfare Action Alliance); RAW (Rochester Against War) (more sponsors will be announced this week)