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LA immigration group at center of girl’s encounter with pope

In this Sept. 23, 2015, photo, Pope Francis reaches to give a blessing to Sophie Cruz, 5, from suburban Los Angeles, during a parade in Washington. She also delivered a bright yellow T-shirt and a letter expressing wishes that her mother and father and millions of others who are in the U.S. illegally are allowed to remain in the country. A coalition of Los Angeles-based immigration rights groups pulled off a public-relations coup when a Cruz had a brief encounter with Pope Francis along a tightly controlled parade route.Cruz’s moment to deliver a message about the plight of immigrant parents living in the country illegally had been in the works for nearly a year. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
In this Sept. 23, 2015, photo, Pope Francis reaches to give a blessing to Sophie Cruz, 5, from suburban Los Angeles, during a parade in Washington. She also delivered a bright yellow T-shirt and a letter expressing wishes that her mother and father and millions of others who are in the U.S. illegally are allowed to remain in the country. A coalition of Los Angeles-based immigration rights groups pulled off a public-relations coup when a Cruz had a brief encounter with Pope Francis along a tightly controlled parade route.Cruz’s moment to deliver a message about the plight of immigrant parents living in the country illegally had been in the works for nearly a year. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

By Associated Press 5 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sophie Cruz’s brief encounter with Pope Francis during his parade in Washington this week appeared to be the kind of spontaneous moment that is so endearing about this pope: an initially hesitant young child wrapping an arm around his neck as he offers a kiss and a blessing.

But for 5-year-old Sophie, the moment unfolded as perfectly as it was scripted by members of a coalition of Los Angeles-based immigration rights groups. They had been preparing for nearly a year for the young girl from suburban Los Angeles to make a dash for the popemobile to deliver a message about the plight of immigrant parents living in the country illegally.

They had even pulled off a similar public-relations coup a year ago in Rome using a 10-year-old girl with the pope.

“We planned to do this from the moment we learned he was coming to the States,” Juan Jose Gutierrez of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition told The Associated Press. “We have been working for a while now trying to sensitize the American public that dealing with immigration is not just dealing with the people who came in without proper documents but that we also have … countless children whose parents are undocumented.”

Gutierrez said the group decided to use the children of immigrants to represent their push for immigration reforms to the pope, a staunch supporter of immigrants. “We have been looking for children to make the case that we as adults have been making for years,” he said.