No Papers, No Fear: Undocumented US Immigrants Declare Themselves on Bus Tour Miranda Leitsinger - NBC News | |
go to original August 22, 2012 |
This summer, we are coming out of the shadows and getting on the bus. Our rights and our families are under attack and we've come too far to go back now. (NoPapersNoFear.org
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - They are in the United States without documentation, and they are tired of hiding.
Over the past few weeks, a group of more than 30 housekeepers, day laborers, students and immigration activists has been making its way across the country in a ragtag caravan, chanting “no papers, no fear” and proudly declaring “I’m undocumented” in public gatherings.
The riders do not have the legal documents to be in the U.S., a point they want everyone they meet to know. They are on the bus tour, dubbed the “undocubus,” to highlight their plight and to challenge their anti-immigrant foes in the ongoing national debate on immigration.
“We want to live in equality like everyone else, and that's why we have taken this risk. We have confronted fear of potentially being arrested, but we believe that it is worth fighting,” said El Salvadorean Jose Mangandi, a day laborer living in Los Angeles who is raising his 3-year-old son on his own after his wife was deported. “We have customs, we have cultures. We want to share this with this country, and those who criticize us and who hate us, we invite you to get to know us.”
Mangandi was one of the group’s members who spoke at a press conference Thursday in a Nashville park across from the public library, where they had just finished hearing a talk on Civil Rights movement protests, such as the local lunch counter sit-ins that led to desegregation.
Their tour, which began in Arizona, has made stops in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Along the way, the riders have met Civil Rights-era activists, some of them have been arrested during protests, and they’ve held talks with immigrant groups to exchange ideas on how to prevent deportation.
“I think it’s important to create dialogue and when I say, ‘I’m undocumented,’ I’m also welcoming others to say their stories, too, and (to) not be afraid,” said Isela Mares, a 29-year-old Mexican living in Phoenix, who noted she was just becoming comfortable using the term “undocumented.” “I feel that it’s our responsibility … to let the people know what we are going through so that they also, you know, find that connection.”
Though their flagship bus painted with the words, “No papers, no fear,” on it in Spanish and English broke down in New Orleans, they’ve carried on with vans and a minibus. They hope the bus will soon re-join the trip.
Organizers came up with the concept of a bus tour in the spring. It was born out of the notions that “undocumented people can speak for themselves” and “undocumented people should be able to choose their own risks,” said Tania Unzueta Carrasco, 28, an organizer with the Immigrant Youth Justice League helping to handle press relations on the trip.
“I think that’s … a big change for a lot of us. I think for a long time immigrant rights organizations had been very protective of undocumented immigrants, just the whole idea of … ‘I will get arrested for you, I will take the risk for you,’” she said. “For a lot of us who are undocumented, it’s like, ‘I don’t want you to do anything for me … I want to be able to … choose for myself what I’m doing.’”
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