Group begins 40-day bike journey for immigration reform

On Monday, a group of immigrant advocates began a 40-day bike journey from Denver to Washington, D.C. to push for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Activist Omar Gómez, who lives in the Boulder area, is leading the journey along with Homero Ocon. Gómez said the idea to travel 1,800 miles across the country came as he grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of immigration reform from past and current presidential administrations, especially following President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to deliver a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

“We don’t want more promises — at least I don’t,” Gómez said.

Longmont local and north regional organizer of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Josh Stallings, is joining Gómez for the first 10 days of the journey. He said his reason for joining in on this effort comes from a similar place.

“A lot of the people in our community who are impacted by this, who are undocumented or part of mixed status families, they’ve fought for years and sometimes decades for some sort of pathway forward,” Stallings said.

Gómez said that while he could have just flown straight to D.C. on May 1, the 40-day journey brings other people into the effort. The bike ride is meant to foster awareness of the desire to create pathways to citizenship and increase collaboration with organizations pursuing similar goals across the country.

“I think — oh I know — the reason I do this movement is because I think this world was created for a better thing than when we (started) living on it,” Gómez said. “… We have the conscience to see that we can do better in this world.”

The bikers plan to connect with immigrants along with immigrant rights, faith and ally groups along the way to uplift the work being done elsewhere. The trek began Monday morning with a general plan of stops on the way to D.C., but the route will likely be adjusted as the effort connects with others.

“I think a big part of it is helping unite people,” Stallings said. “While we have our own local contacts and local community in our state in which we’re fighting for change and working for immigrant rights, we’re all connected to this bigger picture too.”

Gómez emphasized that everyone is part of that larger community, meaning that everyone has the ability to make a difference. Showing that to everyone is at the core of this journey.

“To encourage the community to stand up and do better, I had to do something so they can see it’s possible to do these things,” Gómez said.

See the stops along the bike ride and learn more about the effort at www.united4immigrationreform.org/.