KANSAS CITY (By Dawn Bormann, Kansas City Star) September 22, 2004 - National and local Hispanic groups urged federal lawmakers at a rally Tuesday to support immigration reforms during this congressional session.

"We all know that this system of immigration is broken," said Kansas City, Kan., native Janet Murguia, executive director of the National Council of La Raza in Washington.

La Raza, the country's largest Hispanic civil rights organization, and several local groups sponsored the event at El Centro Inc. in Kansas City, Kan.

The rally was one of 70 similar events held throughout the country this week as a way to present a unified message to Congress.

"We want to be recognized as stakeholders in this country," Murguia said.

Ian Bautista, El Centro's president and chief executive, asked those gathered to push for reform at every level.

"We're here to try and renew and reinvigorate our democracy," he said.

La Raza hopes lawmakers will consider a comprehensive look at immigration reform. However, in the short term, the group wants Congress to pass two initiatives known as the Dream Act and AgJobs.

The Dream Act would provide opportunities for many undocumented children to receive in-state tuition rates at colleges. Undocumented children already receive education from kindergarten through high school. It doesn't make sense, Murguia said, "to say at the end of that trail -- at the 12th grade -- you're done. It's inconsistent to the American tradition."

If the AgJobs bill became law, she said, it would give a limited number of migrant farm workers more access to permanent legal status in the United States.

Although immigrants have taken the lowest-paying jobs and contributed to the tax base, Murguia said, they have been denied basic rights for too long.

"We can't have it both ways in this country," she said.

A series of speakers said that banks didn't want to lend money to immigrant business owners, that good-paying jobs were hard to come by, and that the education system made it difficult for undocumented students to afford college.

At the same time, speakers pointed out, immigrants are allowed to fight and die in Iraq.

The rally, Murguia said, is one of many ways Hispanic organizations have sought to mobilize and present a unified message to political leaders. The effort is necessary, given the anti-immigration sentiments that opponents have presented, she said.

Even though some people think that undocumented workers coming to the United States strain tax-supported programs, she said, "facts show that we underutilize government services."