Non-profit organization, Fast for Families advocates on behalf of immigrant rights in the United States and on Advocacy Day members of the group have pledged to fast in order to support immigration reform; basing their work and message on that of influential civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Fast for Families has set out on a bus tour across the country with the intention of gathering support for their cause. The group is hoping to convince the US government to finally pass immigration reform which will provide a path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants who are believed to be living and working in the country. Recently, the group stopped in Springfield, Illinois and took part in an Advocacy Day rally.
Advocacy Day is dedicated to advocating for immigrant rights and the reunification of families. Several groups of minorities came together to organize the event in Illinois out of fear that programs which are of benefit to immigrants are going to be cut because of budget and pension issues in the state. Dae Joong Yoon, the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium’s executive director, led a chant in the rally: “People united will never be divided” spoken in Korean, English and Spanish.
Yoon said that immigrants arrive in the United States from many different countries and speak in a number of languages, but are united in their desire to create a better life.