My name is Zuriel Espinoza and I am undocumented.
I was born in Mexico City and came to this country when I was two years old. My parents came to the US
because they were fleeing poverty. In Mexico, they often had to choose between eating and going to school. My
mom grew up with twelve brothers and sisters; my dad grew up with six. They decided to pursue a better life,
leave all their family behind, and risk their lives to come to Los Angeles.
We started out living in a garage-converted space, living in a lot of fear. My parents feared the cops, feared
deportation. We went through a lot of hardship, isolation, and fear from deportation. But my parents always
told me to go to school. School for me was always something I was good at and I knew it was the way to get
ahead in life and pursue a good future. So I managed to go to Loyola Marymount University. It took a lot of hard
work and sacrifice. My parents are garment workers; they work cutting dresses. I worked myself in summertime,
as a janitor, as a gardener, whatever work I could get.
And then, the day before graduation, I became really depressed facing the fact that despite all the hard work to
hold a bachelor’s degree, I wouldn’t be able to use it. I still couldn’t legally work here and have almost no rights
as a human being. It’s just really hard to have been in this country for 25 years and to know that I could get
deported at any moment. I don’t know anything about my home country; to me, Mexico is a dreamy, distant
land. I have never been there. My parents are 50 years old now, and when my grandmother passed away of
cancer in Mexico they couldn’t go back to say back to say goodbye to her. They had to be on the phone to hear
her voice and that was very hard.
So I decided to get involved and let people know about the issue because it is very politicized and we often don’t
hear about the human side of it. I myself want to contribute to the economy, I have a bachelor’s degree, I want
to be an urban planner, I want to pursue a master’s degree. My mom and dad, they are homeowners; they want
to become citizens of this country one day. That’s why we need a pathway to citizenship. That’s why we need to
organize. That’s why we need to be sure that we have a shot at legislative change this year because it is very
rare that a moment like this comes. My family and our community cannot do this alone. Your solidarity and
kinship gives us the hope and strength needed to win a fair pathway to citizenship that will not take a lifetime.
Now is the time to create a pathway to citizenship for Zuriel and his family.
For Discussion:
Pharonic oppression, deliverance, Sinai, and Canaan are still with us, powerful memories shaping our
perceptions of the political world. The “door of hope” is still open; things are not what they might be-- even
when what they might be isn't totally different from what they are. This is a central theme in Western thought,
always present though elaborated in many different ways. We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus
first taught, or what it has commonly been taken to teach, about the meaning and possibility of politics and
about its proper form:
1. Wherever you are, it’s probably Egypt.
When you look at the world, where do you see Egypt?
2. There is a better place, a world more attractive, a Promised Land.
What does it look like?
3. The only way to this Promised Land is through the wilderness. There is no way to get there except
by joining together and marching.
What will YOUR journey there look like? Who shares your vision? Who will be a partner?
Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution
www.ikar-la.org
IKAR Minyan Tzedek Organizing Path
mtorganizing@ikar-la.org
Why we, as Jews, support the Campaign for Citizenship
An open letter to President Obama and Members of Congress:
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:20)
Every year at Passover, Jews come together to remember our Exodus from slavery in Egypt with these words.
Our rituals instruct us to tell this story to our children as if we, personally, had traveled the path from slavery to
freedom.
We also share a common bond as we recall our family stories of immigration. We remember ancestors who
sailed across the Atlantic to reach America. We marched in the streets to demand that our people trapped in the
Soviet Union be permitted to emigrate to freedom. We celebrated the dramatic rescue of Jews from Yemen and
Ethiopia since the birth of the State of Israel. We also remember and feel the pain of Jews who were confined by
borders, quotas and internment camps. Unable to leave places of violence and hatred, millions found their
entrapment a death sentence.
Such memories impart obligations.
As Jews in America, we cannot stand idly by when we see immigrant parents separated from their children,
undocumented youth unable to attend college, immigrant workers threatened with exploitation if they work
and deportation if they protest. We witness the daily intimidation of and lack of protection for immigrant
families and we cannot remain silent.
We call on our leaders in government to alleviate this intolerable situation.
We are pleased that there has been a recent shift in the political atmosphere around immigration and applaud
the President for articulating the urgent need for action to address this issue. We offer our support and want to
strengthen the proposals put forth to see a path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring Americans toiling in our
farms and backyards, caring for our children and elders, building our home and laboring in our factories and
restaurants. These are people who are already part of the basic fabric of our nation and deserve a path to full
citizenship. We support the rights of undocumented people in America to due process and worker’s protections,
and the dreams of their children to pursue the educational, cultural and economic opportunities that America
represents. We demand that the status quo of fear, discrimination, and marginalization be replaced by one of
dignity and shared humanity. And we ask that path to citizenship be no longer than seven years, recognizing
that many immigrants have already waited many years for the opportunity to begin to enter the formal process.
We ask this in accordance with our deepest aspirations as Americans and as bearers of our Jewish heritage.
*********************************************************
What You Can Do:
* Contact your Members of Congress and enlist their support for a direct pathway to citizenship for 11
million aspiring Americans - http://www.house.gov/representatives/find
* In L.A.? Stand with policy makers, civic leaders and over 1000 Angelenos on the steps of City Hall at the LA
Voice Citizenship Summit on Wednesday, March 27th at 8pm.
PICO Platform for the Campaign for Citizenship (learn more at www.PicoNetwork.org):
* 7 Years: The path to citizenship should be direct and take no longer than 7 years.
* Citizenship for 11 Million: All 11 million undocumented immigrants should be able to begin the path to
becoming citizens without unnecessary obstacles.
* Freedom of Movement: People approved for the first phase of legal residency should be able to work,
drive, attend school, and travel out-of-country for family or educational purposes.
www.ikar-la.org
IKAR Minyan Tzedek Organizing Path
mtorganizing@ikar-la.org