Mexican Priest Solalinde Leads Immigration Reform Caravan Across US GlobalPost
go to original May 2, 2013

Father Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest from Mexico, addresses supporters through the border fence between Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico. On April 30 he and a caravan of immigration reformers set out on a cross-country trip that will culminate in Washington, DC in late May. (Kevin Douglas Grant/GlobalPost)

CALEXICO, Calif. and MEXICALI, Mexico — The crowd pressed against the 17-foot border fence to get closer to the man they’d come to see. Chanting “Solalinde! Solalinde! Solalinde!” and holding bunches of white balloons, they celebrated the Mexican priest known across his home country for decades of work offering protection to migrants at great risk to himself.

Kicking off a caravan of reformers that will travel across the United States and culminate in Washington, DC in late May, Father Alejandro Solalinde held the blue-and-white Honduran flag Tuesday morning and urged the protection of all immigrants regardless of their origins — Mexico, Central America, South America and otherwise.

Enrique Morones, executive director of the longstanding humanitarian organization Border Angels, wore a purple t-shirt reading “Who Would Jesus Deport?” and led the crowd in a chant: “Todos son inmigrantes!” — “We are all immigrants!” Several of the dozens of supporters on the Mexicali side wore neon green vests, the uniform of city trash collectors.

As the hundreds of white balloons were released, a stiff breeze carried them over the fence from Mexico into the United States.

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