Most people in Florida are familiar with the name of Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been championing the cause for immigration reform along with several other elected officials for these past few months. For him, immigration reform carries with it a personal story. For him, and others like him, he would not be where he is today if it wasn’t for immigration.
Like Rubio, there are other Congressmen and women who have personal ties to immigration, recently telling their stories in an article for the Los Angeles Times. Though their reasons for coming to America may all be different, their personal connection to the process may be the necessary element needed to get reform moving quicker through the government.
For some people in this nation, it’s difficult to understand why so many people back the current legislation that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants the right to stay in this country. As an associate professor from the University of New Mexico explains, for these people there is a fear associated with these immigrants. It’s because of this fear that they cannot sympathize with immigrants and their families. But take away that fear, he says, and people are able to think about things from a different perspective.
Perhaps that’s why so many senators and congressmen have come forward with their own personal stories of immigration. Perhaps it’s in the hope that they can take away people’s fear of immigration and show them how much prosperity the system offers. After all, as Sen. Mazie Hirono from Hawaii, an immigrant herself, explained recently, she’s not sure where she would have been had she not been able to come to America but she knows that she would not have had the same opportunities had she not.
Source: The Los Angeles Times, “For these senators, immigration is a personal story,” Lisa Mascaro, June 23, 2013
