Florida Activists Head North To Talk To Lawmakers

By KEITH EPSTEIN kepstein@tampatrib.com

Published: May 17, 2006

Loading three cars for the long trip to Washington from Tampa on Tuesday, Blanca Gonzalez remembered to bring food, water, luggage, music - and 300 pages of immigration legislation.

As Congress attempts to shape laws to seal borders, keep needed workers and send some newcomers home, Florida activists such as Gonzalez - who organized the May 1 immigration rights rally in Tampa - are heading for the corridors of power.

They are driving north to drive home their point: Even compromise legislation by Florida Republican Mel Martinez, the U.S. Senate's only immigrant, is insufficiently compassionate.

For instance, she said, by dividing undocumented immigrants into groups depending on how long they have been in the United States, the legislation would split some families.

Martinez has acknowledged his compromise would cause some inequities.

"It's ironic," said Gonzalez, noting the senator's own experience of coming to Florida from Cuba as a boy and being raised by two foster families while his family stayed behind in Fidel Castro's dictatorship.

"I'm just hoping we can talk to him, and maybe he'll try to rewrite it in a more compassionate way," said Gonzalez, a founding member of Florida's Immigrants United for Freedom. "Family unification has to be part of it, not just border protection. Not just what's good for agriculture, but what about what's best for the people?"

For his part, Martinez insists that he cares - and understands all too well - but that Washington can't tackle such a big issue without imperfections.

"It sears my soul to this day," the senator said, speaking of his emigration and separation from his family at the age of 15.

About his compromise, which is at the center of the immigration debate, Martinez acknowledged, "There are going to be inequities."

President Bush, meanwhile, indicated Tuesday that large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for two years would never happen because it is unrealistic.

Gonzalez and eight people from Plant City, Immokalee and Homestead are heading north in a caravan of three vehicles. They hope to meet with Martinez; Florida's other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson; and Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow.

The group will switch drivers so they can make it within 24 hours. Gonzalez made copies of the legislation so she could study on the way. "I have a lot of reading to do," she said. "I want to know exactly what I'm preaching about."

She and sister Silvia Torres - onetime tomato pickers in the Tampa Bay area's agricultural belt - faced numerous obstacles over organizing the May 1 rally, from receiving nasty e-mail to insurance company refusals to sell them coverage.

Now, with the immigration issue on the front burner, they're not about to stop.

"We're driving all night, and we're going to see whoever we can," Gonzalez said. "You've got to do what you have to do."

And when she returns? She'll organize another rally. People will walk from Plant City to Tallahassee, she said, adding to the crowd as they go, town by town.