Delia Ramirez strides over to the microphone, intent on getting her point across.
She said, “It is past time that we fulfil the commitment we have made to our Dreamers.
Ramirez is in front of the US Capitol on a clear morning in early December, with the building’s white dome shining against the sky behind her. Ramirez hopes that when she makes her rallying cry, it will have even greater impact than previous times we have heard it. This isn’t just a talking point from her programme for the election.
The Illinois legislator claims, “This is really personal for me.”
It’s personal because Ramirez’s husband might be one of the thousands of immigrants who could be deported if Congress does nothing. Furthermore, Ramirez’s impending election to Congress makes it personal.
She convened this press conference, joined by a number of her fellow incoming freshmen lawmakers and Washington state Democrat Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, to urge members of Congress to advance several significant pieces of legislation while the party is still in control of the US House. One of them is the DREAM Act, which would offer almost 2 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as youngsters a potential route to citizenship.
“I am a DACA recipient’s wife. My parents are working immigrant workers from Guatemala. Ramirez tells reporters, “I have experienced firsthand the difficulties and continual worry our families face every day. “This has to end,” I said.
As decades of discussion over immigration reform on Capitol Hill have amply demonstrated, it is much easier said than done.
But Ramirez asserts that she will continue to advance despite any roadblocks that may appear.
She finds courage in the tale of her family.
Despite how frequent and contentious discussions about immigration have grown in Washington, many of the lawmakers who weigh in don’t have any personal ties to the topics under discussion.
They are the way Ramirez, 39, has always lived.
Ramirez made a point to mention that her mother was carrying her when she crossed the Rio Grande in a candidate profile on her campaign website, noting that her mother later worked “several low-wage jobs to provide her children a fighting shot to escape poverty.”
Ramirez claims that over the years, some of her political rivals have attempted to exploit information from her past against her, accusing her of supporting open borders and disparaging her family in speeches. Ramirez, however, views the history of her family as a positive that has allowed her to connect with voters and have a deeper understanding of the concerns of her supporters.
I didn’t have to hide the fact that I’m from the working class, that my spouse has DACA, or that I’m concerned about how I’m going to pay for housing. Many people’s reality is like that, she claims. And I want to be seen by men and women of all ages who will say, “That was my m’hija, that was my daughter.” Or, “I feel invisible because I’m an intern somewhere.” But if she could, then I can too.
Ramirez claims that growing up in Chicago, where she was born, was influenced by the tale of her mother’s migration from Guatemala to the United States.
Ramirez was told as a child that her mother almost drowned crossing the Rio Grande due to heavy currents. While travelling, she had kept her pregnancy a secret from the other passengers, but in that moment she cried out in despair, “Help! Help me! Please save my daughter! Ramirez claims that a man did, but her mother never saw him again after that day.
Ramirez claims that her mother would constantly bring up this experience when she was a teenager and would say, “I almost died so that you could be born. To keep you alive, I must now battle.
Ramirez claims that that troubled girl never would have dreamed that she would one day be on the verge of being elected to the US Congress, that she would manage a homeless shelter and other successful NGOs.
But that’s just the beginning, right? Ramirez declares. “Perhaps not the Congress part as frequently as it should be, but the trip of so many individuals and so many immigrant children who give and do so much for our country,” the author writes.
What impact does her family’s trip have on how she perceives the current situation at the border?
“It is obvious that anyone prepared to take the long risk of travelling through the desert, the cold, and the tunnels is doing so because they believe there is no other way out of their predicament. According to Ramirez, their migration is the only way they can see their families and themselves escaping extreme poverty and, in some cases, persecution.
If it weren’t the only way she could see to give her unborn child a chance at a life and childhood better than hers, my mother “wouldn’t have risked my life or hers.”
