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Leaders from 30 area churches and religious organizations joined U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. on Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring Thursday night to discuss the need for comprehensive reform to the country's immigration laws while a handful of protestors rallied nearby.

Action in Montgomery, a multi-faith, congregation-based organization advocating for affordable housing and immigration reform, held the standing-room-only meeting in the Bethel World Church to publicize Van Hollen's support for its platform.

The organization seeks to create clear pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the United States and to keep families together through the overburdened backlog of applications for citizenship, according to AIM organizer Alisa Glassman.

"This is the first time we're coming together around a national immigration agenda," she said in a telephone interview March 10. "There are two top issues that come up again and again ... to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country, and family unification; there are currently 4 million people on backlog with family members not in the country with them."

Opponents to AIM's platform, organized by the Help Save Maryland citizen's organization dedicated to protecting residents from what they called the harmful effects of illegal immigration, also had statistics to back up their cause.

Help Save Maryland organizer Paul Mendez mentioned statistics released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Center for Immigration Studies claiming that Maryland currently spends up to $1.4 billion for programs and support for illegal immigrants in the state while the state's unemployment rate for citizens nears 10 percent.

A group of five to six protestors, including Mendez, rallied with signs outside the church Thursday night to protest what they saw as AIM's call for amnesty for illegal immigrants currently in the United States.

"We wanted to educate the good people as to some of the negative aspects of illegal immigration," Mendez said. "There already is a pathway to citizenship [for illegal immigrants], and that is to go back to their countries and apply for citizenship legally. ... We don't need immigration reform. We need to enforce the laws that are on the books now."

In the church, more than 520 congregants and pastors met under the AIM banner, presenting stories from members affected by immigration laws and beseeching Van Hollen (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington to support them at the national level.

One speaker, who was only identified by the alias "Apdegbe" because of his situation, related his story of living in the United States for eight years as a refugee from Togo, a small African country beset by violence and political upheavals. His asylum status does not allow him to seek citizenship for his wife and now 9-year-old son still in Togo.

"It is still not safe for me to return to Togo. The political groups that tried to kill me once have not gone away," he said, adding that, despite being able to work here legally, he still feels incomplete. "This status does not allow me to be with my wife and son, [and] I cannot travel outside of this country. I was told that America is a country that values family life. ... This breaks my heart. Unfortunately, I am not alone. There are many of us who have been separated from our families."

Van Hollen assured the organization that he would work diligently to pass the immigration reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and champion the group's priority goals.

"As I understood the count [of supporters present] ended at 529. I think you've got 530 now," he said, to a chorus of applause. "This has been a broken immigration system in our country that has harmed the lives of so many people, not just the people that it impacts directly, but it impacts us all as a country."

After the event, Potomac resident Mitra Ahadpour approached the podium and shook Van Hollen's hand. Ahadpour, originally from Iran, said she once faced deportation due to a mistake in her family's application for citizenship.

"I was very touched, because the stories they talked about, I've gone through myself," she said, explaining that thanks to her opportunities, she has become a physician. "It is a great problem, and I agree with what AIM is proposing, so I am grateful that representative Van Hollen has agreed to support AIM's platforms."