In Russellville: Hope among undocumented immigrants after Obama action

RUSSELLVILLE, Alabama - Danelia Campuzano came to the Tienda Family Mexican Grocery Store on Friday to do what she has done countless times over the years: make a cash transfer to her family in Mexico.

Campuzano, 44, handed Maria Tomas five or six $20 bills. In moments the transfer was done. Campuzano said the money is critical to her dad who needs it to buy medicine to help control a serious illness.

Campuzano would like to send more money but her family does not have it to spare, she said. They might if Campuzano also had a full time job to go along with that of her husband and son. She said she does make cakes and sells them out of her home and it helps, but not enough.

Campuzano said she does not have a job because she is "illegal" as in an undocumented immigrant who has not been able to obtain the "papers" needed to hold a job.

Campuzano hopes her efforts to obtain that paperwork will now become easier thanks to executive actions President Barack Obama is taking that could impact the lives of almost half of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

"It gives me hope. I hope it helps me get a job," Campuzano said in her native Spanish.

Campuzano said she and her husband came to the U.S. 20 years ago illegally because they could not find jobs in Mexico that allowed them to support their children.

Tomas, whose husband and family operate the store, listened to a replay of Obama's speech Friday morning on a Spanish radio station.

"It was needed," Tomas said in Spanish when asked what she thought of Obama's action. Tomas, who was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. 22 years ago, said all of her family are in the U.S. now, some legally and some not. She said all three of her children were born in the United States and are citizens.

"I hope what Obama is doing will help us all become citizens sooner than later," said Tomas.

Across town, at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, a small group has gathered for the 8:30 mass Father Jim Hedderman conducts each morning. Four of the five at the church are undocumented immigrants. They all came across the U.S. border with Mexico illegally, some risking death to make the crossing.

The only U.S. citizen among the group is 2-year-old Emanuel, who was born in the U.S. He is wrapped in a blanket and is held by his father, Saul, who crossed the border in 1998.

All of them share a similar story. They left Mexico hoping to find work in the U.S. that would allow them to financially help their families left behind or because they could not support their own children or because of the increasing violence in Mexico from the drug wars.

None of them wanted to use their last names for fear that they could be rounded up and deported despite what the President said Thursday about such practices stopping.

Pablo, 26, said he came to the U.S. as a 20-year-old to find work after a drought killed his family's corn crop. "I knew in America I could find work and help my mother, my father. We had great economic need."

It was a dangerous journey, Pablo said.

"We had to cross the desert but we were robbed. They took everything we had including our water," said Pablo. "It took two days but we made it."

Asked who robbed him, Americans or Hispanics, Pablo said "It was our own people, not Americans."

Mariana, 38, said she came to the U.S. as a 15 year old on a forged visa. She came for a better life but also because she wanted to meet her mother, a woman who left the family after divorce when Mariana was just a baby.

"I wanted to meet and know my mother," said Mariana. "She was never going to come back to Mexico so I came to her.

Agustina, the oldest of the group, crossed the border in 1989. Twenty-five years later she is still undocumented and has lived in fear of being deported back to Mexico.

"I still have family in Mexico and the life is hard," she said in Spanish. "The drugs are everywhere. There is murder and kidnapping and so much violence. It is safer here."

All of them said that while they don't yet fully understand what the executive action Obama is taking fully means, they are happy to see finally some action on immigration after years of frustration.

"We have to be grateful," said Mariana. "It is the beginning of something that is good for Latinos. It is a blessing from God. There has been so much suffering over the years as we have seen good people taken from their families, taken from their children here in America and forced back to Mexico where there is so much violence, so much corruption, more suffering. God saw this suffering and he is working through good people to help us."

Mariana said she cried when she learned what Obama had done.

"He is in our prayers," Mariana said of the President. "God is working through him. He has given us hope that we no longer have to live in fear."
Not every immigrant in this northwest Alabama town greeted Obama's speech with praise.

Juan Roman, 43, left his native Mexico when he was just 10 after his mother and father had died. A generation later, he owns two restruants, one here and one in Florence. And, while Roman is still not yet a U.S. citizen - he's working on it - he does not support what Obama is doing.

"I know he is trying to help people but I also know that too many of those who have come across the border need to do more to help themselves," said Roman. I see too many illegal immigrants who are not willing to do what I did, what my brothers have done, work hard every day to make something of yourself. Too many come expecting handouts, come and never pay taxes, never do the work to earn the right to be in this country."

Roman said he and his family - and thousands of others who may have come to the U.S. illegally have worked to earn the ir place and there should be help in taking the final steps to full citizenship but he stressed that citizenship has to be earned.

"Nobody gave me anything. I worked hard, my family worked hard for what we have. My son is a Marine. He has fought for his country, America. We are Americans. And we work hard every day to be good Americans."

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