The Obama administration so far has deported over ONE MILLION non-criminal, otherwise law-abiding, undocumented immigrants: family women and men contributing to Society and pursuing their American Dream. That is an order of magnitude larger than the forced relocation of American Indians from their homelands in the Southeast to the Southwest, in what came to be called "The Trail of Tears." In this, its XXI century version, however, it could be argued the pain is even worse, and the tears more abundant. Families, where the dearest and most important human bonds reside, are broken apart by senseless and needless actions of the Government - and at great expense to the taxpayers, may we add.

I am not affected personally, but as I consider all people to be my brethren and sisters I stand by their side in all ways. The term "illegal" also tends to destroy families. My support will always be for families also.

Senator Dianne Feinstein is a sponsor of the bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. But she's remained silent on whether she'll vote to protect LGBTQ immigrant families when the Uniting American Families Act is introduced next week! We need her to take a stand!

Senator Richard Blumenthal CT is asking to be including the "Little Dreamers" as an amendment of S.744. But there are a group of dreamers who also must be included.

The Associated Press recently stopped labeling immigrants whose legal status is in doubt as "illegals," but individual news outlets still use the label. Labels expressing verdicts for groups of humans close our minds to further investigation of how we should understand those people. Verdicts before trials, in which evidence is presented and we hear from the accused, are a national embarrassment, especially in the case of immigration policy where there is so much ignorance and so little discussion.

A person is a person by any other name. But some names are disrespectful and inappropriate.

As part of immigration reform, we need media outlets to reframe people as "undocumented" rather than "illegal". Now is the time to shift our language to be more respectful and in line with American principles of opportunity and respect. Media outlets are key in this shift to drop the "i" word when referring to people. I want our young daughter to grow up respecting all members of our community as people with value.

Stop the use of the term illegal when referring to human beings.

Stop using the modifier "illegal" to describe an undocumented person. And while we are at it, eliminate "alien" as it sounds like someone from "outer space"

The immigration reform bill recently introduced by the Senate made no specific provisions for LGBT citizens in binational relationships - our LGBT families were EXCLUDED and FORGOTTEN! Presently, the Federal Government recognizes only marriages between a man and a woman. As a result, same-sex couples are “legal strangers” in the eyes of the US government. To remedy the injustices same-sex binational couples endure – discrimination, separation and exile – Congress must include our LGBT families as they address Immigration Reform! Senator Leahy has promised that he will introduce the Uniting American Families Act as an amendment to address the omission of LGBT families. As of today, Senator Dianne Feinstein has not taken a public position on whether she will support the amendment!

A call for responsible journalism

As an American-born Latina, I find it highly offensive to hear "illegal" to describe someone's race, in the media, by government officials and others that do not realize the impact of their words. You never hear undocumented immigrants described as "Latino-Americans" or "Chinese-Americans"—they are always identified by their immigration status rather than their actual ethnicity.