Driving from Chapel Hill to Washington, D.C., after a long day at the office plus the commute to and from Greensboro was not the smartest plan.

Mike and I were trying to get there in time to rest a few hours and be ready for Citizenship Day, Sept. 17. Our goal was to join two other North Carolinians, from Siler City and Charlotte, and "walk the halls of power," as part of the "Unity in Movement Citizenship Day Mobilization." We made it to our hotel just past midnight, checked on our kids back in Chapel Hill and collapsed.

Citizenship Day was a perfect, clear fall day. I was thankful and inspired when we entered the lobby of the Liaison Hotel. Lots of immigrant organizations were represented, with our little North Carolina foursome seriously outnumbered by delegations from other states. However small, our group was warmly welcomed, handed a schedule of events and a map of Congressional Offices, and set out to join dozens of naturalized citizens and our native-born allies who converged on our nation's capital to bear witness to the great contributions immigrants are making to our society and to give voice to our hopes and expectations for the Obama administration.

Although I felt like a novice, I quickly realized that living in Chapel Hill -- especially pastoring a Hispanic congregation for nine years -- had prepared me in many ways for the "lobbying" business.

The first meeting I attended was very much like any number of town hall meetings in Chapel Hill: elected or appointed officials asking for "input" from the citizens while justifying policies or procedures that have been implemented without any consideration for said citizenry. The officials were David A. Martin, Principal Deputy General Counsel and Lizzy Kim, Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It was 8 a.m. and most citizen-lobbyists were still eating breakfast, so the meeting was intimate and I got to sit right next to Mr. Martin and ask my questions.

I was impressed with his experience (Mr. Martin started with Carter and has a track record of advocating for refugees and writing significant humanitarian policies), but couldn't help the feeling that he was trying toboth justify continuing some of the failed Bush policies and convince us that things were changing for the better. After our comments about the abuses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and agencies implementing the 287g law, and the brutal for-profit detention centers where over 100 immigrants have died in the last five years, Mr. Martin's explanation of how such abuses could be reported as accountability rang hollow.

I simply asked: Why try to improve a law that has been proven to fail in its basic objective and that is being used to terrorize immigrant communities by unscrupulous and racist sheriffs? Why would you not get rid of it? What benefit does it yield in terms of making our country safer to justify such human rights abuses?

After that meeting an older gentleman chided me, saying "You have guts, talking to a high-level official like that, telling him 'Get rid of this law!'" I guess I learned that in Chapel Hill: don't beat around the bush or waste time on niceties. Tell the truth and state clearly what you need. You only have a couple of minutes to make your point, so don't leave any doubt as to where you stand.

The biggest surprise of the trip was the serious conversation our delegation had with Mike Harney, the immigration policy adviser for Sen. Kay Hagan. Our group spent a whole hour with him, discussing the town hall meetings immigrants and advocates are having in Greensboro, Charlotte and other areas of the state, and which all of us in the delegation had helped organize. We related some North Carolina stories and discussed the changing demographics, the vital role naturalized citizens played in the last election (Obama won North Carolina by 14,000 votes, with Latino voters in North Carolina casting 27,000 votes for him), and the need to keep faith with this community of progressive, hard-working people who are investing their lives in our state. Mr.Harney committed to finding a time when Hagan could hear the stories firsthand and discuss immigration policy with her constituents.

We also shared our personal stories. I shared how I became a citizen more than 20 years ago and have helped many other families become U.S. citizens as well, including a couple in their sixties -- legal residents for 30 years -- whose granddaughter begged them to go through the expensive and difficult process so they would not be "taken away." Mike shared his experience in Graham, where he teaches ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) and where one of his fourth grader's parents were apprehended in the middle of the night -- leaving the child, a U.S. citizen -- to wait alone through the night and catch the bus to school the next morning.

The responses we received were mixed. Paul Cox, from Sen. David Price's staff, seemed to have trouble believing our accounts. "ICE left the child alone?" he asked several times. I wonder how many detention centers and how many victims of raids Mr. Cox has visited. Rep. Melvin Watt's legislative counsel seemed well informed about immigration issues. "I wish I could say I'm surprised," she said, "But I've heard too many stories from people who work with immigrants and lawyer friends." She encouraged us to continue pushing for change.

As we walked out of that office, we ran into a Chapel Hill friend and member of our 2001 Peru expedition, a young lady who we knew as a UNC student and is now a senior legislative assistant!

We left Washington right after five, another big mistake. Two hours (and only 30 miles) out we had to call our son, Cristobal, and ask him to keep his sister company one more evening. It took us almost seven hours to get home. While it took energy and effort to get to D.C., I'm glad I went. Some of the devastating policies of the Bush administration have become entrenched and I'm afraid it will take many citizens' trips to Washington -- physically and electronically -- to bring about the change we voted for and hope to see.