“Rescue Deferred Action for Parents of Americans” was printed in the T-shirt given by the girl who had a close encounter with Pope Francis during his papal procession today.
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The schoolgirl, who is a USA citizen living in California, battled her way through a crowd of thousands to get within feet of the Pope during a parade in Washington D.C.
Pope Francis motioned to the security team to let her through, where she handed him an envelope containing her letter.
[Meet Sophie Cruz, the 5-year-old who gave the pope a letter because she doesn’t want her parents deported].
Britain’s Guardian newspaper later spoke to the child, who told it she had learned by heart the contents of a letter, in Spanish and English. After being inspired by a similar moment in Rome, Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center in Los Angeles, told the Washington Post her organization chose Sophie, with her parents’ permission, to deliver the drawing and note to Francis and hear their message. “I have the right to be happy”, she explained afterwards. They deserve an immigration reform because that’s in America interest.
“They deserve an immigration reform, because it benefits my country and because they have been working hard harvesting oranges watermelons, carrots, onions, spinach and other vegetables.”
“Tactically really, it’s one of those moves that is just brilliant”, said Robert Gonzalez, a Harvard University sociologist who has spent the better part of the last 23 years researching immigration in the United States.
He said: “The fathers and mothers of USA born children live in complete uncertainty”.
Back on the ground, she reached up with a T-shirt and her letter.
A guard carried Sophie to Francis, and the “son of an immigrant family” – as the pope boldly called himself next to Barack Obama earlier in the morning – embraced the daughter of another immigrant family, in the middle of the street, in a moment instantly beamed across the world.
Sohpie was born in the US, but both her parents are undocumented immigrants.
Sophie was with a group from La Senora Reina church in Los Angeles.
Wednesday was the Pope’s first full day in the United States.
The Pope would be at the Capitol, the US’s seat of Parliament where he is expected to address a joint meeting of the US Congress at 10 a.m, following an honoured invitation made by Speaker John Boehner.
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Apodaca said she wanted to “tell those women to come out and to stop being afraid”.
