Pains and bruises won't stop them

Miami Herald, The (FL) - Sunday, March 21, 2010
Author: MIRTA OJITO, mao35@columbia.edu

They have blisters on their feet, two suffer from sciatic nerve pain, one has pain on his lower back, and the other has a bruised -- maybe fractured -- toe. They have battled colds, trudged through snow in Georgia and stood stoically as angry KKK members called them ''Mexican dogs.''

But they keep walking, and they've promised to continue walking until they reach Washington, which they hope will be by May 1st. They hope, too, that they can make a difference. That their walk won't be in vain and that they will help change hearts and minds and even immigration law.

They left downtown Miami Jan. 1, heading north on Biscayne Blvd., and haven't stopped walking since. They walk eight hours a day, every day, sleep where they can -- sometimes in a welcoming church or in a friend's RV -- and rest on Mondays. They have walked through their first pair of shoes and are on their second or third pair. They have switched to boots, waterproof.

They are four young people from Miami -- graduates or students of Miami Dade College -- with a very simple request: a chance to be, once and for all, fully Americans. Specifically, they want a law that stops the deportation of immigrants with U.S. citizen children or spouses -- to avoid family separation -- and of students who came to this country as children and have lived here all their lives.

Posted By: Ayanna Spikes

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