The Maya K’iche Organization
We established the Maya K’iche Organization here in Massachusetts as a non-profit organization in order to orient and support the Maya and non-Mayan Central American community through correct and efficient performance of the collaborating corporations. Among other things, the Maya K’iche organization provides information and teaching on and about the reality of the culture we have inherited from our ancestors. Our organization arose also as an instrument of support for the work that was already accomplished by different Mayan groups and organizations situated in the United States. We are part of the diversity of instruments the Mayan community has created and we are obligated to find unity amongst our Mayan brothers and sisters who have lost their identity as part of the migration process.
Among other things, our general objectives in the Maya K’iche Organization are the following:
a. Contribute to the development of youth as they are our future.
b. Emphasize in our practices and teaching our sacred book titled
the Popol Vuh.
c. Help recuperate and open the minds of all those who come to us
in a manner of teaching and being taught.
d. Propose the participation of all the different organizations here in
in the United States, Central America and Guatemala.
e. Take into consideration the different forms and decisions of our
brothers. sisters, and other colleagues within the organization; and,
f. Reenact the relationship and respect amongst the Mayans and the
spirit of service to those who need it.
We also have the following targeted areas in our Maya K’iche Program here in New Bedford, Massachusetts:
a. Enabling our youth by means of courses, workshops, and education
with the support of professional individuals in these fields.
b. Each and every member and personnel within the organization has
an obligation to participate in all the different target areas that
are achieved.
c. To have our interests known and the importance of keeping our
historical roots; and,
d. Ensuring that we will be able to maintain our culture and pass it on to our children with pride.
As our Maya K’iche Organization Mission states, we have also been targeting Central American and Guatemalan migrants in other areas surrounding New Bedford Massachusetts and “the purpose of our non-profit organization is to orient and support both the Mayan and Central American community.” Along with our “organization providing education and study on the history of the ancient Maya which was passed down to future generations by the Maya K’iche fore-father,” we are also “conducting programs and activities in such ways to encourage participation, self-development and independence among the Central Americans in the community and to continue to teach the culture and values to future and present generations.” Our organization also seeks “through such means as research, study programs, innovation advoc
acy, and consciousness raising activities that will advance the causes of the Central American people across local, state and national priorities.” Through these activities, we also hope “to continue to enforce and improve the standards of living for Central American people in the United States of the America” and also hope that the “growth of the organization will be to complement and support all Central Americans in the community.” B. Letter to President Bush and Response from the US Citizenship and
Immigration Services in April 2004
Based upon this program on behalf of the Maya K’iche and other Central American migrants which I helped to create in New Bedford Massachusetts in the 1990s, I also wrote a letter to President Bush following the Peace Accords in Guatemala of 1996 and especially after the terrorism control of migrants here in the United States after September 2001. This letter to President Bush was dated April 2004 and stated the following:
“I would like to send you the best cordial greetings from the Mayan Community of New Bedford, Massachusetts. I am President of the Organization Maya K’iche USA, Inc. which represents the Mayan community in this area. We belong to a network of Mayan Organizations nationwide.” “The purpose of this letter, Mr. President, is to let you know that we have found political asylum in the United States since 1980, and no freedom at all in all of the Americas. We enjoy no rights in order to survive in this country. Since then, we have suffered horrible discrimination due to the fact that we have no appropriate documents. The fact that we are unable to obtain a Social Security card makes our lives unbearable. We are unable to obtain a driver’s license and cannot function within this society without an ID. We need to be able to drive legally in order to work and take our children to school and respond to any potential emergency and family related matters. We may have no documents, but no human being is illegal, Mr. President.”
“Mr. President, we Native Maya have lived through horrible conditions of discrimination in our country since Columbus. This pattern of abuse and discrimination has continued to this day. We are Natives of this Continent without land and documentation. “
“May God enlighten you in order for you to consider the plight of Native American Maya, who work extremely hard every day to support the American economy. Please help our Maya people. We merit and need your support. Our children and our people will look up to you as a special friend and a hero to the Maya people. ”
I also thanked President Bush in advance for his kind consideration of this matter and after sending my letter to him in April 2004, I also heard from Heidi Marquez, the Special Assistant to President Bush and a Director of Presidential Correspondence, and was informed by her that my inquiry was sent to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Organization (USCIS) in the US Department of Homeland Security in Washington DC.
The letter which I received from this organization stated:
“Thank you for your letter to President Bush. Your letter asking about the requirements that are needed to apply for asylum in the United States was referred to us, the Headquarters Office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We regret that we could not answer your letter sooner.”
“Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, governs the asylum process. The statute allows any foreign national physically present in the United States to apply for asylum, irrespective of immigration status. In order to qualify for asylum, you must establish that you are a refugee. A refugee is a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality or last habitual residence because of persecutions or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.”
“In order to apply for asylum, you must file Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. You must submit the application for asylum within 1-year of arriving in the United States, unless there are circumstances that affect your eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to a delay in filing for asylum.”
“You may include your spouse and unmarried children less than 21 years of age in your asylum application if they are in the United States. You may obtain an asylum application packet from the USCIS Form Line at 1-800-870-3676. In addition, you may download the application and other forms and information from our web site shown at the bottom of the page.”
“If you have already applied for asylum and would like to know the status of your application, please contact the USCIS office having jurisdiction over your area of residence.”
“You may request permission to work in the United States only if your asylum application is pending and 150 days have elapsed since your application was submitted in the USCIS. If your application has not been denied within 180 days from the fate of filing a completed asylum application, you may be granted employment authorization.”
“A specially trained Corp of Asylum Officers adjudicate asylum applications that are filed with the USCIS on a case-by-case basis. If you are not granted asylum, the USCIS might use the information you provide on the asylum application to establish that you are removable from the United States.”
C. Detaining of the Maya K’iche and the other Central American Immigrants in New Bedford Massachusetts by the US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Organization in March 2007
Despite this attempt by our Maya K’iche organization to get President
Bush’s new immigration agencies to respect our Mayan and other Central American migrants, on March 6, 2007 agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Organization in Washington raided the Michael Bianco Factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts and arrested about 360 people, many of whom had children that were left without parents as a result of this brutal raid. After the raid by the ICE , the Maya K’iche Organization created a rally against the raid which brought together700 persons in support of the detainees.
This event on behalf of the detainees, many of whom were Maya K’iches
as well as some persons from other Central American countries, included prayers from a Mayan elder identified as Grandfather Nicholas Lucas Tecum and also from Reverend Richard Wilson of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at Saint James Church. Grandfather Nicholas’s prayer called for peace for “all inhabitants of this earth;” and, the prayer by Father Wilson noted that “people of all faiths and nonbelievers” have rallied around the cause of the undocumented immigrants and their families.
These prayers were followed by the assembly’s chanting of “The people united will never be defeated” in Spanish and the playing of a Chilean song of the same name, which served as the anthem of Chile’s left-wing Popular United government in the early 1970s.
Another person named Corinn Williams, who is head of the Community
Economic Development Center, recapped the events of March 6, 2007, the day of the raid, and she called upon those present at the assembly to give humanitarian aid, whether it be in the form of time or money, or to “just make phone calls” in support of the affected families. Referring to the raids, she also said “This can be stopped if only our President and Congress would just fix out immigration system.” The crowd at this assembly was also visibly moved as a woman with small children described her situation after her husband was arrested at the Michael Bianco, Inc. factory. She was followed by another immigrant named Jose A. Cruz who said his wife was jailed in Texas after being arrested in New Bedford. This person also called on the press to continue reporting on the plight of the families of the detained.
Another person named Howard Mary from Fall River Massachusetts spoke for United Interfaith Action, a coalition of religious institutions in the area. He called on the people to”work together for a policy that promotes justice and protects the powerless” as the basis for immigration reform. Also speaking at this event was another person named Juan Garcia of the Immigrants in Action Committee at St. Teresa’s Church in Providence Rhode Island. This person had just returned from Guatemala, where he took part in protests against President Bush during his Latin American tour. During the tour to Guatemala, President Bush tried to bolster the image of the United States in the region, where a popular upsurge has elected several progressive, left-oriented governments in recent years.
Finally, another person named Jose A. Soler, who is director of the Labor Education Center at the University of Massachusetts in North Dartmouth, put forth the position of the AFL-CIO on immigration reform. This person, who is also a leader of the local center labor council, noted that “The women and men that were working in the factory that was raided were working under deplorable conditions, yet apart from some fleeting statements, the federal government has paid absolutely no attention to that.” He ironically remarked that the workers were being punished for being exploited and he criticized the Bush administration’s call for a guest worker program and called for new immigration reform “with laws that focus on worker rights, not just providing employers with a steady stream of workers that have no rights that are exploitable through temporary worker programs.”
D. Response to the ICE detention of Maya K’iche and other Central American Workers in New Bedford, Massachusetts
In 2008, several other persons also responded to the ICE detention of Maya K’iche and other Central American migrants in New Bedford, Massachusetts during the previous year. On March 5, 2008, for example, an article appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper which noted that “More than half of workers detained in the New Bedford raid are still here in the United States.” This article by Maria Sacchetti of the Boston Globe staff noted that “A year after federal agents arrested 361 illegal workers at a New Bedford leather-goods factory, more than half of the workers are still believed to be in the United States. an outcome that is raising concerns on both sides of the heated immigration debate about the effectiveness of the operation. “ It also noted that “After the raid on March 6, 2007, immigration officials vowed to sweep the detainees out of the country. But as of this week, only 165- or about 46 percent—had been deported. The rest are fighting for asylum or visas in an immigration court, and one man is still in jail in Texas.”
This same article also noted that “The immigration agency cannot account for the whereabouts of 35 people who were processed and released at the scene the day of the raid, but lawyers believe nearly all of those former workers are also still in the country.” It also quoted me as saying that “I think the United States made a plan that didn’t work; and, “It was a loss and waste of money.” It was also noted in this article that “Lawyers for immigrants say they believe dozens of people will qualify for asylum. Interviews with detainees, mostly women, who were born into the decades-long wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, unearthed chilling stories of assaults, rapes, deaths of family members, they said. These detainees came to the United States to work, lawyers said, but many believe they could be eligible because they fled unsafe circumstances in their homelands.”
Reverend Marc Fallon, a Caseworker at the Catholic Social Services Agency in New Bedford, Massachusetts also made a response to the ICE detentions of the Maya K’iche and other Central American migrants in an article published on March 6, 2008. This article noted that “those families affected by the egregious acts against and systematic mistreatments of detainees by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 6, 2007 and during the past year, let me list below some examples to show that this raid had nothing to do with humanitarian principles or concepts.” Among other things, Reverend Fallon noted:
1. The government buzzed the Michael Bianco factory with a helicopter. This served as an emotional trigger reawakening previous trauma incurred by these Central American workers who grew up during the civil wars and genocide of the 1980s. Local service-providers generally consider most of this population to be post-traumatic.
2. ICE agents took pride in telling Organization Maya K’iche Director Anibal Lucas and me of their foresight in pre-positioning ambulances on site. Why do so if not anticipating a frightened, fleeing mob? A young woman broke her foot in the chaos.
3. Although through the intermediary of the New Bedford Police Department, ICE assured community advocates that bilingual DSS caseworkers were on site to preclude the separation of children from their parents or care-givers, by early afternoon this proved to be patently false. There were none but ICE agents on site that cold day. Further, the government refused to allow a K’iche speaker Mr. Lucas, to address the Mayan women so as to plead that they mention children who were under their care. Thus did the government traumatically separate 112 children from their parents and guardians.
4. ICE committed to holding the detainees indoors (it was below twenty degrees Fahrenheit with 20-30 mph winds all day long) and not exposes them to photographers as they entered buses. Yet, they did their perp walk vehiculary, as each government motor coach was preceded and followed by sheriffs’ vehicles of various counties of the Commonwealth. Our neighbors left this city shackled and shamed.
5. When Carlos Avila, Consul General of Guatemala and attorneys representing Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) visited detainees at Fort Devens the nights of March 6th and 7th, all were struck by the manner in which ICE agents referred to those in their custodial care. The Agents referred to the detainees as “bodies” but never as “women,” “men” or “persons.” Could there be an organizational disinterest in human beings?
6. While the above-mentioned attorneys were allowed to visit detainees, the government denied them communication with family members until ICE had flown them to Harlingen or El Paso, Texas.
7. ICE never provided Consul Avila with documentation of the New Bedford Guatemalan nationals detained, in clear violation of international law.
8. ICE issued the first report-in appointments for detainees on Monday, 12 March 2007. Mr. Lucas and I accompanied two women well into the third trimester of their respective pregnancies, several more adults, and two pre-scholars to the JFK Federal Building in Boston. We spent the entire day waiting for these brief introductory meetings. As the day went on, it was clear that Boston ICE officials, with whom GBLS and other immigration attorneys have an ongoing working relationship, had nothing to do with the disposition of the Michael Bianco Factory detainees. Their superiors in Washington appeared to have been responsible for the entire operation. When the ICE office was to close at 4 pm, there was still no decision from Washington.
9. The above detainees returned to New Bedford in the early evening. I wait
for the first Salvadoran nationals to be released at the JFK Building, as the Orantes-Hernandez case precluded the removal of Salvadorans from Massachusetts. Well into the night, I returned to New Bedford in a passenger van with nine detainees. They began to tell of mis- and maltreatment at the hands of ICE personnel that has proved consistent to all attorneys and advocates who have since heard the allegations: shackled at wrists and ankles, causing lasting bruises; being forced to sit on the cold factory floor; transported with the wrists fastened to the back of the seat in front of them; the cold of high-security Fort Devens, while compelled to stand for hours without attention to basic human needs; frequent and gratuitous verbal abuse; minimal satisfaction of nutrition; being urged to sign pre-checked forms waiving important legal rights; and a female detainee who had been removed from New Bedford after having protested that she was presently nursing her infant. This force removal directly caused the child’s hospitalization.
10. The Guatemalan and Hondurans who were flown to Texas within 72 hours
described similar “security” measures; legs and arms immobilized for the entire trip, with cheese sandwiches and juice callously tossed to the detainees absent any provision to receive and ingest the food. Some observed the manhandling of detainees who tried to communicate with one another.
11. Male ICE agents refused to allow female detainees the dignity of closing the door while using the lavatory; they remained outside watching the detainees throughout. ICE agents suggested that they would run rubber tubing from the lavatory to the urinary tracts of the detainees when the women complained of the indignity of their lavatory access.
12. Texas detainees were subject to inconsistent treatment by immigration court judges. While several dozen Harlingen detainees were able to finance immigration bonds, no El Paso detainee was permitted to do so. Detainees have described systematic verbal abuse and misrepresentation of their legal status by ICE agents (i.e., “if you ask for legal relief of any kind, you’ll be held here for years.”) along with sub-standard nutrition, sanitation, medical care, communication with family members, and access to legal counsel.
13. ICE denied due process and access to legal counsel to one detainee with a disability. The government compelled this hearing-impaired K’iche Mayan, whose grasp of Spanish is consequently weak, to attend group hearings that were conducted only in Spanish or English.
Reverend Marc Fallon, A Caseworker at the Catholic Social Services Agency in New Bedford, Massachusetts, also concluded his article on these detainees by stating:
“Although we do not suggest that every federal agent sank to such depravity, the very notion of employing personnel and tactics more suited to apprehending amoral, violent drug dealers is defacto dehumanizing and contrary to any notion of the common good. As community advocates we did not endure or witness the offenses on the buses or planes or at Fort Devens. Yet, we must give witness to the shock tactics of the federal government whose militarized agents arrived under the cover of a helicopter, with automatic pistols in their thigh-holsters, who strutted about on March 6th with their collapsible night-sticks, all of which triggered deep-seated trauma for these Central Americans. While local community support has been amazing and life-giving on so many levels over long months, none of us could fabricate the systematic allegations of dehumanization as separately documented by attorneys, advocates, ministers and others. We lament the loss to our community as perpetrated by the federal government. We give witness so as to recall some dignity in what is left of the tatters of the Constitution in the hands of ICE and d the Department of Homeland Security.”
E. Conclusion: Maintaining Mayan Culture and the Rights of Mayan Migrants in New Bedford, Massachusetts
Despite these problems faced by our Maya K’iche and other Central American migrants here in New Bedford, Massachusetts and other parts of the United States, we have continued in our Maya K’iche Organization to support these migrants and to establish events which promote their cultures and rights. In July 2008, for example, we held a three day Mayan conference here in New Bedford, Massachusetts which was led by three renowned Mayan social leaders. Each of these leaders spoke on various topics including the rituals of their culture, astrology, and the history of the Mayan civilization, and the future of the Mayans in the United States. This project also addressed the issue of immigration law, adapting to a new environment, and learning to live peacefully and lawfully in a new environment. It also served to enlighten the Mayan community to their native culture through orientating and realizing programs of disclosure, study and organizing aspects with respect to the human rights and the promotion of the cultural values of the Mayan community. This conference also focused special emphasis on the promotion, suggestion and distinctive efforts in relation to the individual identity and rights of Mayans.
In July 01, 2008, the South Coast Today.com newspaper also carried an article titled “City’s Mayans Try to Preserve Culture As They Assimilate to Life in the United States.” This article noted that “Last September, a group of about 20 Guatemalan Mayans from New Bedford knelt in prayer around a fire pit at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council’s ceremonial grounds.” It also stated that: “Mayan spiritual leader Jose Angel Zapeta Garcia flew in from Guatemala to conduct the traditional thanksgiving ceremony, which incorporated incense, candles and offerings of chocolate, bread, sugar and alcohol. He thanked the creator of life, earth and heaven for the blessings of the year, including the free legal counsel some of the group had received after being detained in the Michael Bianco Inc. federal immigration raid.”
This same article also noted the following about our work on behalf of the Maya K’iche:
: “The prayer ceremony – one of a few in recent years hosted by Organization Maya K’iche, a New Bedford advocacy group- is one example of how many of the city’s estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Guatemalan immigrants are trying to preserve their Mayan culture while assimilating to life in the United States.”
“Another is their language. Mayan immigrants speak K’iche, one of 28 Mayan languages found inCentral America, as their first language. K’iche is widely spoken in the Guatemalan highlands, especially in th provincce of Quiche, where most of New Bedford’s Mayans were born. (Quiche is the Spanish spelling of K’iche).”
“Mayan immigrants often speak Spanish as their second language,
though some do not learn it until they arrive in the United States.
Some Mayan adults are also learning to speak English by taking English-
as-a second-language classes offered by local schools and churches.”
“Anibal Lucas, director of Maya K’iche, says he and other immigrant
parents are concerned that their children, who learn English in school and
also speak Spanish, are losing part of their cultural heritage by not speaking
K’iche. He wants to establish an after-school K’iche program that would be
taught by a language instructor from Guatemala. In learning K’iche, the
children would be exposed to Mayan spirituality and values, such as respect
for nature, which are inherent in the language, Mr. Lucas said.”
“We don’t want them to be only gringo,” he said jokingly, referencing the
sometimes derogatory term used in Latin America to refer to English-
speaking foreigners. “We want them to learn the language Maya.”
“The Mayans are the largest indigenous group in Central America,
making up more than half of Guatemala’s population. They trace their
ancestry to the ancient Maya civilization, known for it stone temples and
pyramids and numerous achievements in agriculture, astronomy,
architecture and other fields.”
This same article in the July 01, 2008 issue of the South Coast Today.
Com also notes:
“The majority of New Bedford’s Guatemalan immigrants identify as
Mayans, although there is a ‘substantial’ number of Ladinos, said Corinn
Williams, Executive Director of the Community Economic Development
Center of Southeastern Massachusetts.”
“On a cool October night last fall, Guatemalans gathered in a parking
lot near Acushnet Avenue to celebrate the Feast of Saint Luke. The feast,
which honors the Catholic patron saint as well as a bountiful harvest,
usually lasts a week in Guatemala.”
“The New Bedford event, which featured live music and dancing,
attracted about 50 spectators, mainly young Mayan men who stood
quietly with their arms folded across their chests. A few Mayan women
wore brightly colored skirts, blouses and head scarves. Their children
played together in front of the large stage, where a band played
marimba music.”
“The feast featured dancers from New Bedford and Providence
who wore elaborate masks and costumes trimmed with beads, ribbon
and fringe. One of the traditional dances they performed told the
story of the Spanish invasion, betrayal and final conquest of
Guatemala.”
“Some of the spectators captured the action with handled video
recorders; and, the Rev. Marc Fallon of Catholic Social Services,
who ministers to the city’s Central American immigrants, said
many immigrants take videos of community events, including
festivals and Catholic Masses, and send them to their families in
Guatemala as a way of keeping in touch and sharing their experience
in the United States.”
“As Mayan immigrants explore ways of preserving their cultural
heritage, they are also making lives for themselves and their
children in New Bedford,” Dr. Lisa Maya Knauer, a UMass
Dartmouth anthropology professor who is studying New Bedford’s
Central American community said.
“ Both in and outside of Guatemala, Maya have sometimes tried
to hide their indigenous identity,” Dr. Knauer also said, “But there’s
been a kind of ‘Maya revivalism’ and what the community is
doing here in a way reflects that.”
“The Mayan ‘don’t see a tension between preserving and
adapting,” she said. “They want to learn English and want to be able
to make better lives for themselves here and be able to talk to theircoworkers and neighbors.”
Along with this maintaining of the Mayan culture which
now takes place in New Bedford, I also wanted to mention by way
of conclusion that in November 2008 the Michael Bianco Inc
Factory agreed to pay $850,000 in unpaid overtime and wages to
more than 750 workers, including some of whom were arrested and
deported following the massive immigration raid at the former New
Bedford military gear factory.
According to an article by Becky Evans which appeared in the
New Bedford Standard Times on November 19, 2008, “This
agreement settles a federal class action lawsuit filed by Greater
Boston Legal Services (GBLS), a legal advocacy group that has
provided free counsel to more than 100 of the 361 undocumented
workers arrested in the March 6, 2007 raid.”
This same article by Becky Evans also noted that “Audrey
Richardson, a Senior attorney at GBLS, said workers had sought
overtime before the raid, but former owner Francisco Insolia of
Michael Bianco Inc. had made it “’crystal clear’ that he would not
pay overtime. She described the settlement as only “partial justice”
for the workers, many whose lives were torn apart when they were
separated from their children and families following the raid.”
“Ms. Richardson also called upon President-elect Barack Obama
and the new U.S. Congress to push for federal immigration reform
that would bring immigrant workers out of the shadows and erase
the climate of fear surrounding their workplaces.”
This article also noted that two weeks prior to its publication ,
“the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston announced that Bianco and
Mr., Insolia had pleaded guilty to federal charges involving a
scheme to hire illegal immigrants.” However, “as part of that
settlement, the company agreed to pay $460,000 in restitution
for overtime pay owed to workers;” and Ms. Richardson said
“that sum was included in the $850,000 seettlement announced
on Tuesday during a press conference at GBLS headquarters.”
She also noted that “In addition to the overtime pay, Bianco
had agreed to pay wages withheld from workers who were as
little as one minute late for work, according to GBLS. The
lawsuit alleged that workers were routinely docked 15 to 30
minutes of pay because they had waited in long lines to punch
in for work due to an insufficient number of time clocks.”
“The settlement,” it was also noted, “includes money for
New Bedford community groups that support and organize
immigrant workers and partial compensation for attorney’s
fees and costs incurred by legal services groups that represent
workers. In addition, the six plaintiffs named in the lawsuit
will receive a bonus of $2,000 each in recognition for their
courage in coming forward to testify, Ms. Richardson said.”
Finally, this very important article about the settlement
reached in the Bianco Case, also noted that “Both GBLS and
the Organization Maya K’iche. A New Bedford Advocacy
group for Guatemalan Mayans, will assist in locating workers
and distributing checks. The groups have kept in touch with
many of the workers who were deported to their home
countries and will work with family members to track down
some deported workers, Ms. Richardson said.”
As is quite clear, our Maya K’iche organization is very
pleased by this settlement reached in th Michael Bianco
Corporation here in New Bedford, Masachusetts and we
hope it will stand as a lesson for other employers who
have hired Guatemalan Mayans and other Central American
migrants and that these employers will also “treat us with
dignity and respect” and “abide by the law of this country.”
This is especially true now during the new administration of
President Barack Obama when there may be some
significant changes in the former migration laws and policies
here in the United States and there may also be more
understanding by the national and state governments of
the needs of these Mayan migrants and their families and
home town communities both here in the United States and in
Guatemala and perhaps also in Mexico.