Daniel Rivera's Immigration Story

CWA delegates were deeply moved by the story of how CWA Local 7019 member Daniel Rivera and his family marched toward citizenship.

Soon after he was born in Mexico, Rivera explained, his father made the difficult decision to find work on the other side of the border, so that he could better take care of his family. He made it to Greeley, Colo., where he took a job on a farm doing everything from feeding cattle to driving tractors. He worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week.

“My father was happy to be working but missed his family,” said Rivera, who is now a CWA area representative, steward and credit consultant at CenturyLink. “He convinced my mother to attempt the trip across the border with me and my little sister who was only two at the time. It was risky but not being reunited as a family was unimaginable. Applying for legal entry back then was impossible as it is now. To the U.S government my parents were not priorities because they were unskilled and uneducated. My mother agreed to the dangerous journey across the desert with two small children in order to join my father and give her children a better life.”

Rivera, who was 6 years old at the time, walked for three days through the desert. His mother carried his sister the entire way, collapsing several times from exhaustion and dehydration. They ran out of water, and they would have become among the thousands that die attempting to across the border every year if they hadn’t found a well.

“My sister suffered from kidney failure as a child as a result of the extreme dehydration she had suffered. All of us carry the scars of that three day journey with us,” he told delegates.

Once in the United States, his parents worked in laundry services for low pay.

In 1986 President Ronald Reagan passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act and they applied for citizenship. His family got their resident cards and then permanent residence. In 2007, his entire family became citizens.

“My immigration story is no different from the 11 million undocumented currently in the country. Look at me and you see them,” he said. “They are just like me and we are just like you. Workers trying to support their families. I am proud that my union is on the front lines of immigration reform, pushing for a real path to citizenship.”

Watch his full speech here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXV-1IMFHXM&feature=youtu.be