A movement grows to protect vulnerable immigrants

By Frances Ruth Harris
GOSHEN — "I'm tired of being treated like I don't exist," Alfredo Pacheco of Goshen told the crowd.
Hundreds of people from Orange, Westchester, Ulster and Putman counties, and New York City, gathered recently at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center to hear New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman address the Trump administration's deportation policies.
"Families are being torn apart," said Pacheo.
An immigrant from Mexico, Pacheo heads the organization Community Voices Heard.
"We need to create relationships with everybody in this country."
The immigrants in attendance, many from Goshen, asked Schneiderman for protection. They came in buses, cars, and on public transportation. They wanted to know what the state government was doing to keep their families safe.
"We will provide protections so that our state governments, our governors and our attorneys can work with our people," Schneiderman told them. "We can protect ourselves. The time is now. The time for us to work together to protect workers is now."
Amalia Hernandez of Goshen addressed Schneiderman in Spanish as Elizabeth Varela translated for the audience:
"My name is Amalia Hernandez and I live in the town of Goshen. I am a leading organizing member of CVH (Community Voices Heard). I arrived in this country at 16 years old. I had to be separated from my family and it was when I had to emigrate to this country leaving behind a country, family, friends, parents and everything to have a better life, but the most painful is to know that I'd never see them again.
"Now as a mother, I do not want to be separated from my children. I want to see them graduate from a university and see them fulfill their dreams and successes. I now live with a lot more fear because I don't know what can happen with me tomorrow. My fear is stronger by the idea of my family one day becoming separated, and in all honesty, my children are not at fault if one day they are abandoned without a father or I, their mother, just because one day we had the courage to emigrate to this country to have a better life for them. I know that this country has many opportunities and many of us like myself, have achieved them through hard work and dignity.
"We do not steal work or life from others. I, like many of us, pay taxes. We follow rules, and we are not criminals, and even with that our government officials do not want to give us immigration reform, a license or a form of identification, Our families are concerned about the recent deportations. And the saddest thing is that school-aged children are being threatened."
'Leaders have turned their backs on us'Schneiderman said he's put safety policies in place at all schools in New York. Not one child had been removed from any school, he said.
"Just being here without documentation is not a crime," he said.
He said he won a lawsuit against President Trump and Trump University, and that he is joining three other attorneys from the states of Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts to again sue President Trump over his latest deportation edict. He believes he will win again.
"Federal leaders have turned their backs on us," he said.
Schneiderman said he is building a movement like the movements for civil rights and women's suffrage.
"The next big movement for equality and justice is starting now," he said. "The President is subject to the constitution and the rule of law."
He wants to see a $15 per hour minimum wage. But he said nothing will happen without action.
"You will get from your government what you make it give you," he said. "Now we are called. Are we going to rise to the occasion? Rise! Rise! Rise!"
People began chanting, "Yes we can!" in Spanish. A standing ovation of the hundreds in attendance capped the evening.
Varela, the translator, told The Chronicle in an email later: "The event was definitely a success! I myself am one of the members in Monroe in Orange County, and this movement is really something worth fighting for. My parents are immigrants just as Alfredo and Amalia are part of the many living their lives in fear. I've seen their struggles to get me and my siblings by, and that is what motivates me. I fight for the better world they dreamt of. This is not going to be an easy fight, but it's not impossible. I am really happy that you are writing this story, it helps create a louder voice for those going through similar issues."