On August 25, 2013, community leaders and supporters of the immigration reform movement marched through downtown Goldsboro, NC. The group consisting of DREAMers, labor groups, human right advocates and undocumented immigrants, marched through Goldsboro demanding that their representatives support commonsense immigration reform. There, the 200 people march turned into a festival with mariachis playing music, and Mexican folk dancers on the stage.
Members of the community organization Fuerza y Libertad spoke to the crowd about the importance of immigration reform for the 11 million immigrants without proper documentation and their families, and called for an end to the separation of families. Keynote speaker, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Eliseo Medina, called on the Governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory to support immigration reform. “The Governor should be trying to help us fix this problem and by vetoing a bill that would contribute to fixing the problem, I think that’s a mistake,” he said referring to the Governor’s recent veto of HB 786. He also called on local representatives to support reform, and on Speaker Boehner to allow there to be a vote in the House of Representatives.
After the march nearly 200 people gathered at the Farm Labor Organizing Committee union hall in Dudley to host a community dinner with Eliseo Medina.