Despite hesitancy to address immigration reform in Congress, many immigration advocates are making their voice heard and publicized in the national press:

Trail of Dreams: A group of four students from Miami, FL set out on a 1,500 mile march on New Year’s Day with the hopes of reaching Washington DC. They are asking for both comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act. Three of the students are undocumented, and one, Felipe Matos has stated, we are “risking our futures because the present is unbearable.” Earlier this week they met with Florida state legislator asking for instate tuition for immigrant students who have graduated from a Floridian high school.

A recent report, "Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement," concluded that “children whose parents were detained for longer than a month [due to immigration enforcement] experienced more changes in eating, sleeping, frequent crying, fear, anxiety, regression, clinginess, and aggressive behavior.” The report tried to gauge the emotional repercussions that the 5.5 million children of unauthorized immigrants might experience under current enforcement procedures. The sample included 85 families, with 190 children (two-thirds of which were US citizens). Surprisingly, the lost of a parent created a greater interest in schoolwork as school became a “stable safe-haven.”

Obama’s aunt ‘allowed to stay in the US’: Last Thursday an immigration Judge heard the case of Zeituni Onyango, 57, and granted her lawyers until mid-March to submit “written arguments.” Mrs. Onyango was given permission to stay in the US until then. The White House has had no influence of the case, which began in 2004, after Mrs. Onyango was denied asylum; “she suffers from Guillain-Barré syndrome (an autoimmune disorder affecting the nervous system).”

Marco Saavedra serves Campaign Intern for Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. He studies Sociology at Kenyon College and is of Mexican heritage.