Los grupos que defienden los derechos de los inmigrantes en Estados Unidos multiplican acciones de cabildeo en el Congreso para pedir a los senadores que introduzcan modificaciones al proyecto de ley de reforma migratoria que resolvieron comenzar a debatir el lunes.

Algunas de estas agrupaciones organizaron este martes un evento en salas del Congreso para pedir cambios al proyecto, menos de 24 horas despu?de que el Senado abriera formalmente el debate sobre una iniciativa de ley que es producto de un acuerdo de democratas y republicanos, con apoyo de la Casa Blanca.

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes has been sentenced to 26-years-to-life for placing a false name on a DMV application for a driver's license under the Three Strikes law in California; and

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes has already served over six years at Folsom State Prison; and

WHEREAS: Such imprisonment for a non-violent, victimless crime should constitute a clear violation of the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment"; and

WHEREAS: The act committed by Santos Reyes would normally have been prosecuted as a violation of California Vehicle Code: Section 20, a misdemeanor (which states that "It is unlawful to use a false or fictitious name or knowingly conceal any material fact in any document filed with the DMV"), which carries a maximum sentence of one year and could not have been used as a "third" strike; and

WHEREAS: The prosecutor abused his discretion by electing to charge Santos Reyes with a more serious offense of perjury, a violation of Penal Code Section 118 (a) a felony, that could trigger Three Strikes sentencing; and

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes' two priors strikes were a residential burglary as a 17 year-old minor (he and another youth stole a radio after visiting a house without a forced entry) and an armed robbery alleging the use of a knife committed when he was 23 years old (a charge Santos Reyes maintains he is completely innocent of); and

WHEREAS: Neither of these offenses occurred within the last twenty years; and

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes served his jail sentences as a model prisoner; and

WHEREAS: the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals has granted Santos Reyes a hearing to determine whether he should have been punished under the Three Strikes law; and

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes sought only to provide for his family as a roofer by seeking to obtain a driver's license an event totally disconnected from the previous issues and one created by peculiar and unjust juridical circumstances; and

WHEREAS: Santos Reyes has become a victim and today a symbol of injustices against Mexican immigrants who only seek to provide for their family; and

WHEREAS: In no other country in the world has any individual been or could be sentenced to such a prison term for falsifying a name on a DMV form; and

WHEREAS: Hundreds of thousands marched throughout California May First 2006 in demonstrations of which many were dedicated to Santos Reyes and where thousands gathered at San Francisco's Civic Center raised both hands in support of clemency appealing to the Governor for mercy and showing the overwhelming support of the Latino community and others for Santos Reyes' freedom;

1. BE IT RESOLVED by the National Latino Congreso does hereby petition the Governor of California to immediately grant a pardon and free Santos Reyes

We appeal, request and demand the Assembly of the State of California and the Senate of the State of California join us in a petition to the Governor to end this great injustice by freeing Santos Reyes to return to his family.