Immigration Awareness IGNITEd

Loyola University’s Ignite Change group held a meeting where three speakers discussed their personal experiences with immigration on Thursday in Knott Hall 004. The speakers were senior Chloe Mohammadioun, Professor Pacheco, and senior Jonathan Gomez. The meeting was from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. open to all students and faculty. Ignite Change is a new group on campus started this past fall by junior Emily Murphy and sophomore Camille Wathne. The group discusses different issues going on in the world to students on campus, hoping to promote awareness.

“I think that our immigration system has many ingrained problems that cannot be fixed without an overhaul or radical change,” says Wathne. “The group seemed like the best way to confront these issues, and to get the campus involved.”

Although Chloe Mohammadioun is not a member of Ignite Change, she “absolutely would recommend it to other students.” Mohammadioun talked about her experience with Spring Break Outreach, a program run by Loyola during the week of spring break that allows students to travel to different places in poverty. Mohammadioun’s group went to Immokalee, Florida, a small city near Naples. Many illegal immigrants who live in Immokalee are employed as farmers. But she says these farmers are beginning to be exploited.

Mohammadioun says that farmers in Immokalee are paid less than 30 cents per bucket of vegetables. She also states farmers are experiencing modern day slavery – farmers are sometimes locked in a truck at the end of their work day by employers to guarantee the farmers will be at work the following day. After going on SBO and seeing the realities present day immigrants face, Mohammadioun said she “realized that immigration is… a bigger issue than fake papers and border control.”

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is working to make companies like Giant and Chipotle aware of the suffering that goes into the creation of their products. These two food places as well as other food businesses get many of their tomatoes from Immokalee. Mohammadioun says students of Loyola University can show their support of the efforts of the CIW by being responsible consumers. “That may mean giving up Chipotle burritos and chips for a while, but what is the pay off?” asked Mohammadioun. “Better lives for farm workers.” 

Professor Pacheco discussed how his “glamorous view of the U.S.” turned sour when his family went through immigration hardships. Pacheco is originally from Chile, but his family decided to move to Philadelphia because of his father’s new job. After 9/11, Pacheco and his two siblings were all considered “out-of-state” residents. Also in 2001, Pacheco’s father had to renew his visa to keep his job. Although the family finally did become considered “in-state” for tuition purposes and Pacheco’s father eventually obtained a valid visa, the process cost their family thousands of dollars.

Jonathan Gomez came from Venezuela on vacation to the United States only to be told by his mother that they were not going back to their home country. Gomez explained how his mother works extremely hard and rarely goes to the doctor and when she does go, she has to only pay cash. He said this shows how determination is not enough for immigrants living in the United States because no matter what they are often treated poorly and experience difficulties becoming legal citizens.

Each speaker concluded their speeches saying immigrants cannot continue to be treated unfairly and need to be stood up for. In the words of Mohammadioun, immigrants and other individuals who endure hardships in the nation today need spokespeople to provide “a voice to fight for them.” She urged audience members on Thursday to “be the ones signing postcards to our senators, letters to managers and getting people educated.”

Any student wanting to further learn about and promote the rights of immigrants as well as be regularly informed about other growing issues in the world is welcome to join Ignite Change. The group meets on Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. in Sellinger 107.

Pictured below is Chloe Mohammadioun after the Ignite Change meeting.