Our Washington, D.C. Experience

By Guest on 04/28/2011 @ 02:27 PM

This guest blog is from Joriene and Jashley Mercado, the twin sons of Shirley Tan and her partner, Jay Mercado. Earlier this month, Joriene and Jashley accompanied their parents, and Immigration Equality, to Capitol Hill. The family - who made headlines when Shirley was faced with possible deportation - joined our policy team to rally support for reintroduction of the Uniting American Families Act.

From April 12-15, our family was invited by Immigration Equality to help lobby for the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and to speak in the press conference for the reintroduction of UAFA. We were very much honored to meet several staffers of the Members of Congress and to speak in the press conference with nine House Representatives. It was truly a rewarding experience to be able to do what we did because an average teenager usually does not have the chance to do what we had done. Our family was very fortunate to go to Washington DC because all the work Immigration Equality and us had done in the past week helped UAFA to move forward.

As you know, the passing of UAFA will be very beneficial to our family and the more than 36,000 binational couples out there. Although our mom received a private bill from Senator Feinstein which stayed her deportation, it is not permanent, unlike what UAFA would do for my mom, but we are extremely thankful to Senator Feinstein for the private bill.

The heartbreaking situation our family had faced in 2009 was devastating. One morning in January, ICE officers came to our house early in the morning to give my mom a deportation notice. She was taken in a van and handcuffed like a criminal. This was so surreal and unimaginable. I couldn’t picture anything like this happening to our family. During that day and the couple of weeks after, we were unaware of what was happening to our mom. She had an ankle monitoring bracelet that she hid from us for a long time. Then, our parents decided to tell us the whole story because they said in order for us to receive help, we must have our story in the press. We were in tears when they told us what happened. Our mom is one of the most caring and loving people in the world and this should not have happened to her. Luckily for our family, my mom’s deportation was stayed due to the help of Senator Feinstein, Congresswoman Speier, Immigration Equality, Melanie Nathan and numerous other people.

That experience was probably one of the biggest obstacles our families has faced so far. We thought that this case only happened to our family, but we discovered that there are over 36,000 other families in the same situation as ours. That really opened our eyes and alarmed us that there's a need for a big change. That is why we enjoy lobbying for UAFA because we know that we will make a difference in this country if UAFA passes.

We enjoyed speaking to the staff from the different offices in the House of Representatives and the Senate offices, telling them our story, thanking or asking for their support of UAFA. Our meetings with most of the staffers were very productive and the outcome of our meetings were great! It definitely put a smile on our faces to hear that the staffers were very intrigued by our story and that they would bring up UAFA with their bosses.

Our experience speaking in the press conference for the reintroduction of UAFA was probably the greatest part of our trip. It was definitely an honor to be speaking at a podium with Congressmen and women. We were definitely nervous before speaking, but it was fun speaking in front of the many people who showed up in support of UAFA. After speaking, we felt as if we were experts at public speaking and felt like we're junior Congressmen.

Our trip to Washington DC was such a great experience for us and definitely gave us some insight on our future careers. We ask you to please contact your local congressperson or senator to support the Uniting American Families Act. It would mean so much to us and the 36,000 others who need help.

Photo: The Tan-Mercado family in the office of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), enjoying "Made in Ohio" lollipops.