Erandi Hernandez Aguilar had never walked 20 miles in one day before August 17. But by day’s end August 19, she had walked that distance twice over during a three-day caminata organized to spread awareness and support for immigration reform.
The caminantes walked to exhort legislators to update the immigration registry process. They want the law to change the year of residency, which would grant citizenship to a far greater number of immigrants.
Hernandez Aguilar, president of MEChA de Santa Rosa Junior College, was one 250 caminantes — walkers — who participated in the “Caminata for Pathway to Citizenship through Registry,” a three-day walk, and rally that took place from August 17 – 19. The caminata began at Plaza Herencia Mexicana in San José on Saturday and ended 52 miles later with a rally at San Francisco City Hall on Monday.
The walkers organized around a shared goal: to send a message to the presidential candidates that immigrant communities won’t tolerate further criminalizing undocumented migrants in this country, said Renée Saucedo, immigrants rights attorney and activist who helped organize the walk. They also carried a message for Kamala Harris.
“We expect her to place at the top of her agenda a path to citizenship through the registry process,” Saudeco said.
Saucedo and other immigrant rights activists noted when Harris said that she would work on a path to citizenship during her acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Harris did not dwell on the topic in that speech, however she has since restated her intention to create an earned pathway to citizenship.
The registry process Saucedo refers to is the complicated legislation that regulates which migrants can become citizens and according to what parameters. The registry process predates the current presidency. In fact, it has not been updated in over five decades. In the intervening years, multiple generations of migrants and children have entered, been born, educated, employed and died in the United States. But many, despite many decades of living and working in the country, still wait for citizenship.
The registry law, which dates to 1929, states that if undocumented migrants have lived continuously in the United States since 1972, and meet other requirements, such as having a “good moral character,” they are eligible to apply for permanent residency. Unfortunately, Saucedo pointed out, the law has not been updated since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Currently, residency requirements stipulate that immigrants enter the country before 1972, which means that immigrants are required to have lived over 50 years continuously in the U.S. to qualify. Immigrant rights activists advocate for the existing law be updated, not with a year of entry, but rather an amount of time that would be required. Specifically, they want seven continuous years of residency to qualify migrants for permanent residency.
Two federal bills codify this request – HR 1511 in the House of Representatives and SB 2606 in the US Senate. In the House of Representatives, 83 congress people support it and on the Senate side, 10. Activists will continue to push for local resolutions similar to one passed by Berkeley’s City Council calling for Citizenship through registry. And activists will continue to push for HR 117 in the State Legislature, which declares California’s support for Citizenship Through Registry, Saucedo said.
For Saucedo, though, the walk represented more than lifting immigration reform to the attention of everyday people. She also hoped that the walk would expand their movement for citizenship through registry, which she feels they accomplished.
“Our hope was that documented migrants would show how they are leaders in this movement, and we accomplished that,” she said.
A 52-mile walk through urban streets requires more than stamina. It demands discipline that can rise to the challenge. Members of the North Bay Coalition felt such a long walk “was necessary to do, to show urgency and the need for a path to citizenship for the 11 million [undocumented immigrants],” Saucedo said.
With each stride Hernandez Aguilar, the SRJC student, stepped into the role of leadership. Hernandez Aguilar was a guide and safety monitor for the walk, responsible for guiding the two hundred participants safely through the urban streets.
The task required physical and emotional stamina. Safety monitors assured participants’ safety. They pulled wagons weighed down with water, snacks and emergency electrolytes. They shouted route and safety messages over megaphone. They wove up and down the column of walkers to remind them to take breaks.
Above all, they kept peoples’ spirits high with songs and chants.
On the first night, Hernandez Aguilar wondered if she’d be able to complete the walk. But she thought of her elders and ancestors, some of whom crossed the border into the United States on foot, who have walked further.
The next morning, one elder gave the blessing, accompanied by the drum which beat like a heart. The elder encouraged the caminantes to walk with their feelings — the presence of their ancestors who walked to their futures, to the sensation of the sun, the presence of nature.
By the end of the second day, Hernandez Aguilar was exhausted. Her feet hurt. Her throat hurt. She was tired and hungry. They had been walking city streets all day long and were surrounded by tall buildings. About an hour from the hotel where they would sleep, she saw the sun glinting off the buildings and recalled the elder’s advice from twelve hours earlier.
Hernandez Aguilar pointed out the rays to the caminantes, reminding them of the elder’s morning message. And when they reached the hotel, they were greeted with songs and cheers.
College students made up about a quarter of the caminantes, according to Dafne Cruz Rodriguez, 20, a University of California, Berkeley student.
Cruz Rodriguez had never walked this far before, either. She had always wanted to participate in activism to support immigration reform, but there were obstacles. She was underage or concerned about the status of family members or feared exposure. This year, Cruz Rodriguez decided to participate, recognizing that others can’t because of fears of deportation or of the police.
“Creating awareness, making sure that politicians are paying attention to what we’re asking for [and] a path to citizenship for immigrants [motivated her],” she said.
Cruz Rodriguez grew up in Sonoma County and participated in the migrant education program. Many members of her family and community have lived in the United States for 20 to 30 years, but without citizen status, their rights are limited, she said.
“I am very passionate to work towards immigration reform, because I want there to be a better future for those folks, the older generations, who have been here for years and [who] keep contributing to the community as community health workers, or to the economy — like in Sonoma County, specifically farm workers in the wine industry,” Cruz Rodriguez said.
The caminata drove home the interconnectivity between the diverse immigrant community for Cruz Rodriguez. Her ancestors come from La Mixteca, a region in the northern part of Oaxaca. She met a lot of people from that area on the caminata, as well as many from Central and South America as well. “A lot of folks who are immigrants are from Mexico — it’s a big population, but also there’s folks from El Salvador, or folks from Guatemala, who also deserve to be able to have a pathway to citizenship.”
When they reached San Francisco City Hall people were cheering.
“We did it, we finished this, we completed this together as a group,” Cruz Rodriguez said. “That was the happiest moment, especially when people started hugging each other. It’s a small step towards a better future for everyone.”
Throughout the walk, the participants felt the support of the surrounding communities. The students described people honking and cheering in solidarity. “You know, there’s a difference between nice honking and bad honking,” Cruz Rodriguez said. In South San Francisco, an industrialized area, workers stopped to raise their fists in solidarity and to cheer, the students said.
While walkers felt welcome for most of the walk, they did encounter people carrying Trump campaign signs when they entered San Francisco, said Cruz Rodriguez.
But what stood out for Cruz Rodriguez was the feeling of solidarity among walkers. “I heard a lot of people’s stories. I learned about people’s history,” she said. “What we’re doing is one day going to be in the textbooks,” she said a week after the caminata. According to Cruz Rodriguez, walking in solidarity felt like becoming part of the historical record. “It’s important to put myself in those shoes if I really want to see that change that will come in the future.”
X’andri Bautista, a senior at Sonoma State University, participated in the caminata for the first time as safety team leader. In the preparation leading up to the walk, Bautista felt the weight of responsibility to keep the large group of walkers safe on busy urban roads for three days. In addition to ensuring physical safety, the team also helped walkers and leaders take care of their emotional health.
Many walkers carried the memories of their ancestors’ journeys into the United States. So, in addition to reminding walkers to drink, eat and take breaks when needed, the safety team also checked in on walkers’ overall well-being. A therapist rode in a car labeled “emotional support vehicle,” Bautista said. Inside, a therapist would ask walkers, “What’s going on? How are you doing? How are you feeling?,” Bautista said. Often, people would joke and chat. And then, “everything would just come out regarding the overall complexity of the environment that we’re navigating moving into November.”
The walk affirmed Bautista’s sense of unity in the movement. Elders took care of the walkers, asking how they were doing and reminding people to rest. This attentive support created a feeling of care and solidarity. “We’re so caught up in this mentality of producing and production, and having to work, and having to fulfill every duty,” Bautista said. But through their support, the elders communicated that “it’s okay to step back, it’s okay to take a break, the work will always be there. But we can’t continue moving forward without you, and we need you.”
For supporters of immigrants rights who have collectively spent decades meeting with public officials and advocating for policy and legislation, sustaining the energy to continue is hard, Bautista said. They likened the feeling of solidarity to radical love, akin to “not knowing who your neighbor was, but asking, ‘Hey, do you need a rest for your feet? Do you need this?’ And I think that itself planted a lot of seeds of hope.”
