In his address tonight, we expect that the President will reiterate the importance of immigrants and immigration reform to this nation and restate his commitment to modernizing our immigration system in order to keep families together.

We hope that the President in his address recognizes that America deserves a common sense immigration process that creates a roadmap to citizenship for 11 million new Americans who aspire to be citizens. The roadmap to citizenship must not be so expensive and onerous that it leaves millions in limbo for lengthy periods of time, or subject to an ever moving metric of “border security.” We need a fair system that creates a reasonable immigration process for New Americans. Legislation must also keep families together here in this country, protect all workers, and honor and preserve our longstanding constitutional promise of equal treatment to all.

We expect the President to reiterate his intentions to create smart immigration enforcement. We hope that his point about smart enforcement does not mean more enforcement. This administration has deported more New Americans than any previous administration. Every minute that passes, another immigrant is torn from their family by our President's immigration enforcement policy. On average, President Obama's addresses have lasted one hour and five minutes. That means that 65 people will be torn from their families by the time the President ends his speech.

Tell the President to start immigration reform by stopping deportations: http://bit.ly/12cqBg6

As border enforcement has increased over the past decade, migrants seeking survival and a better life in the U.S. have rerouted to ever more dangerous points of the border. Migration through the dessert, mountains or river means higher rates of deaths along the border. This year in Brooks County alone, the bodies of 140 migrants have been found dead.

As Americans, we believe all men and women are created equal and that our laws should treat all people fairly and with respect, no matter the color of your skin or the country of your birth. It’s time we modernized our immigration laws to reflect those values. Any legislative proposal must respect and protect the rights of everyone here.

Will you be watching the State of the Union Address tonight? The National Day Laborers Organizing Network is partnering with Cuéntame to stream it LIVE and then do an immediate undocumented response to the speech.