A group of New Jersey children of immigrant parents will be heading to Washington D.C. Tuesday to speak to leaders about immigration reform that keeps families together.
Nicole and Michelle Edralin are American citizens of an immigrant father who immigration officials have detained in Elizabeth over an incident involving a B.B. gun about 10 years ago.
The sisters say that they want lawmakers to put children first in immigration cases.
Another child going on the trip, Jocelyn Pangemanan, says that her father was detained several years ago.
“It’s just wrong,” she says. “It’s not right. It’s inhumane.”
Immigrants’ rights activist Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale will be leading the trip to Washington.
“Keeping families together is something that we need to think about, not only at the border, but also in the interior of our nation,” he says.
The children will be meeting with New Jersey’s U.S. senators to discuss immigration reform.