Marchers will meet at Union Park at 11am, and walk towards Federal Plaza for 1PM Coming Out of the Shadows rally. The march and rally to take place on the anniversary of the first mass immigrant rights march in Chicago in 2006, and date of the fourth undocumented-youth led National Coming out of the Shadows day rally.
The Rally and march will demand a stop to deportations as a first step towards inclusive immigration reform. The rally takes place as part of the fourth annual National Coming Out of the Shadows Rally, a strategy started in Chicago in 2010 calling for public disclosure of people's immigration status to push for a change in the immigration laws. This year, those 'coming out of the shadows' will not only include youth and students, but also relatives of those in detention, immigrants facing deportation, and children whose parents have been deported.
The march will take place Sunday March 10, 2013. AT 11 a.m. marchers will gather at Union Park, to step off at 12 p.m. At 1 p.m. Coming out Rally and story telling begins at Federal Plaza. There will be music and performances from 12:30-1 p.m. at Federal Plaza to welcome the march.
The March will begin at Union Park (Intersection of Ashland and Washington St); Coming Out Rally will take place at Federal Plaza (Dearborn and Adams).
Participants are families facing deportation, undocumented students and their parents, people separated from their families by deportation and detention. The National Coming Out of the Shadows rally and March 10th March is a collaboration between the Immigrant Youth Justice League, the Latino Youth Action League DuPage, Undocumented Illinois, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, La MisiÃ"n de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Chicago Community and Worker's Rights, the Latino Organization of the Southwest, and Centro Sin Fronteras.
As nationally the Senate, House, and the White House are proposing immigration reform plans and discussing immigration enforcement measures, families continue to be broken up by deportation and detention. With a record-high 409,000 deportation, organizers of the march and rally believe there needs to be a moratorium or suspension of deportations as a first step to immigration reform.
Undocumented young people are urging others to be part of the National Coming Out of the Shadows rally because they believe it is a strategy that works. After undocumented young people began to be eligible for work permits and relief from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative, their focus turned to defending the rights of their parents and other family members against deportation, and for supporting an effective, non-punitive, and reasonable path to citizenship. Coming out of the shadows and fighting individual cases has been one of the most successful strategies of the youth movement nation-wide, and youth want to bring it to those most vulnerable.
This event is part of a month-long series of 'Coming Out of the Shadows,' which includes a rally for the first time in Addison, Illinois on March 16th at 2pm. More information and full calendar of events at www.iyjl.org/comingout2013
Undocumented Illinois is a collective of undocumented -led organizations standing with all immigrants defending our rights at a local, state, and federal level. The Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL) is a Chicago-based organization led by undocumented organizers working towards full recognition of the rights and contributions of all immigrants through education, leadership development, policy advocacy, resource gathering, and mobilization.
