One of the most pressing issues in American politics today is that of immigration reform. So far, all efforts to pass a bill to reform the current, broken system have stalled in Congress due to a lack of political willpower to push it through. There is an increasing number of voices by citizens and advocacy groups in a movement to pressure Congress about immigration reform and it is guaranteed to be a major platform issue in the next election. One of the most effective, if not well known, leaders of change in the Hispanic community is 68-year-old Eliseo Vasquez Medina, Mexican American labor union activist leader and advocate for immigration reform.

Last year, Medina organized a month-long water only fast with supporters at the National Mall to bring attention to the issue of the country's broken immigration system, a move which brought President Obama to speak out in solidarity of the demonstration. At the time, Obama said, "Right now, I'm seeing brave advocates who have been fasting for two weeks in the shadow of the Capitol, sacrificing themselves in an effort to get Congress to act. And I want to say to Eliseo Medina, my friend from SEIU, and the other fasters who are there as we speak, I want them to know we hear you. We're with you. The whole country hears you."

Medina participated in the historic United Farm Workers' strike in Delano, Calif. when he was only 19 years old. Medina worked as a union organizer and political strategist alongside civil rights activist Cesar Chavez for the next decade and eventually became the United Farm Workers' national vice president. Since then he joined Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1986, becoming the first Mexican American elected to serve as international executive vice president in 1996. He has founded several advocacy organizations to galvanize the Latino vote, including Mi Familia Vota in 1998.

He is also the leader of Fast for Families, which conducts a bus tour around the country to demonstrate for immigration reform and has the participation of immigrants of all nationalities. According to the website of the Fast For Families organization, their mission statement is as follows:

"The Republican leadership in the House continues to delay a vote on the one issue that holds strong bipartisan support and is backed by a breadth of communities and groups across the country. Every day the House leadership stalls on a vote for immigration reform, families and communities suffer the impact of deportations, deaths on the border, exploitation at work and the fear of living in the shadows with no path to citizenship.

"By fasting, we hope to follow the examples of Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to touch the compassion and sensibilities of our elected leaders to address the moral crisis of an immigration system that fails to comport with our national values, our creeds and belief in justice."

Medina's efforts are not always met with enthusiasm, however; just last weekend, he was arrested in Florida for trying to deliver a letter calling for House action on commonsense immigration reform. Mi Familia Vota's Executive Director Ben Monterroso issued the following statement:

"Eliseo Medina was in jail for only one reason: he dared wage a national campaign to urge the House to stop talking and start acting to fix the immigration system.

"More than halfway through the campaign across America, the stop at Rep. Diaz-Balart's office marked the first time Medina was greeted with handcuffs instead of a dialogue on finding ways to break the gridlock in Congress.

"This is not how Rep. Diaz-Balart or any member of Congress should treat a well-respected, national Latino leader, and this is not how someone who professes to be seeking solutions should treat immigrants.

"This event was the consequence of members of the Republican-controlled House, including Rep. Diaz-Balart, pounding their chests about the need to act on immigration reform and yet doing nothing. Though Diaz-Balart has spoken at rallies in support of immigration reform, he has not been able to influence his GOP leaders to call for a House vote on immigration reform with a path to citizenship.

"Our leader, Eliseo Medina, sat in jail for over 11 hours yesterday evening, now we ask Rep. Diaz-Balart to think about what led Eliseo to his office and to firmly decide, once and for all, to stop talking and start acting. If Diaz-Balart really wants to help immigrants in this country, he should do something about it."

He was back on tour by the very next day, appearing in Atlanta where he gave a speech on Wednesday. "The time for reform of our immigration laws is long past. We cannot afford to have more people die on the border because there is no legal way to get here except walking through the desert in the heat of the day and in the cold of night. We cannot afford to have more families torn apart through deportation," Medina said. Fast for Families Across America is planning to visit more than a 100 congressional districts in 32 states by next month.

We got in touch with Mi Familia Vota, another one of Medina's organizations, to ask them about the future of immigration reform among other political topics salient to Latinos across America.

LP: In your opinion, what are the top five political goals for the immigration reform movement?

MFV: If key policies are handled in a comprehensive, commonsense bill, immigrants and communities of color will be protected from state laws that rely on racial profiling for immigration enforcement.

Immigration reform should also create a path to citizenship for those who qualify, vastly improving the economy and the civic participation of communities of color. The expansion of democracy and political empowerment speak directly to our values as a nation.

Among the key policies that we seek in legislation are:

a. Allow family unification and restore justice in the immigration system in order to stop the needless deportations that are separating families;

b. Update the visa system so that there are enough channels for immigrants to enter the country legally (currently, the system is out of date and has too few visas available for families and workers).

c. Protect workers through employer accountability measures that would ensure fair wages and labor standards, nondiscrimination of immigrant workers and other protections.

d. Keep immigration policy and enforcement where it belongs -- in the hands of the federal government and not states. This would protect against racial profiling laws passed by some conservative legislatures that have been challenged in the courts.

LP: Who, if anyone, can be considered a champion of the immigration reform agenda in Congress?

MFV: Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-IL; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ

LP: Please provide your thoughts on the high number of deportations that have taken place under the current administration.

MFV: This policy began during the George W. Bush administration after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. From a political standpoint, the Obama administration was perceived as showing that it could and would enforce existing laws by maintaining strict deportation policies and ramping up border security, in exchange for commonsense immigration reform. However, the House and conservatives in Senate have refused to credit the Obama administration's immigration law enforcement. Meanwhile, immigrant families are suffering from the deportation machine now in place. The separation of families is having a deep impact in immigrant communities because the policies are not focused on criminals, as the administration promised. The administration has administrative authority to change its policies and stay within current law. However, a permanent solution is required and that can come only come through reform legislation.

LP: What are the future prospects of increased Latino political representation at the state and federal levels?

MFV: As the Latino population continues to increase so does its political potential. Over 64,000 Latinos turn 18 every year, over 4 million are eligible to become citizens and over 25 million are eligible to vote. With this continued growth in demographics and political potential it will become more and more challenging to continue to ignore issues important to this electorate, including immigration reform. 

Mi Familia Vota did not comment on the issue of human trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border.