For Immigration Activist, Obama Speech Was A Chance To Cheer

Republicans may be fuming, but local Hispanics are cheering President Obama's move to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Luis Aguilera-Garcia was born in Mexico but moved to Yadkin County when he was two years old. On Thursday, he went to a “watch party” in Washington to see the president's immigration speech.  When it was over, he called home to tell his mother, a fast-food worker, about what had happened.

“And I was excited to tell her she was going to qualify and that she finally was going to be able to live her life happily and without being in fear,” he says.

Aguilera-Garcia  started volunteering for El Cambio, an immigrant and minority rights organization in Yadkin County, when he was just 14.

Now he's 19, and he says he's excited that the executive order may clear the way for him and his family to move freely between the United States and Mexico to visit relatives. He says his mother hasn't seen his grandmother in 15 years.

“Now, knowing that I have the possibility for me and my mom and everybody else to go back and reunite with the family brings me so much happiness.”

Aguilera-Garcia says Obama's announcement is a major step forward, but there's still work to be done. He's also an advocate for GetEQUAL, a gay and transgendered rights group. He says for immigrant members of that community, the fight for equality goes on.