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By Dan Whitcomb and Syantani Chatterjee
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Thousands of immigrants marched through cities across the United States on Thursday, but smaller crowds suggested their cause had lost momentum in this election year.
Immigration-rights activists have retrenched to focus this year's rallies on stopping workplace raids after Washington failed last year to act on reforms that included a path to legal status for illegal immigrants.
In Los Angeles, an estimated 8,000 people converged on City Hall. But the numbers were nowhere near the 500,000-strong showing in March 2006 that caught authorities off-guard and prompted activists to hail the start of a new civil rights movement.
"This is a very young country built off immigrants. The immigrants of yesterday are citizens today, so immigrants of today should become citizens tomorrow," said Jose Rodriguez, who came to the United States from Mexico illegally in 1989 and has since gained permanent residency.
"The police are deporting immigrants because they have broken the law but I think there is a higher law and that is to treat someone in a humane way," said Rodriguez, 42.
In Phoenix, no one turned out to march, in contrast to past years when central thoroughfares were packed with protesters.
In Tucson, Arizona, a few hundred pro-immigration supporters walked through the streets carrying placards with messages such as "Citizenship Yes! Deportation No!" That fell short of organizers' hopes that several thousand would attend.
'SHOW SOME MERCY'
Activists said the low turnout stemmed from the failure to push a bill through Congress last year that would have given illegal immigrants a chance to legalize their status. An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, mainly from Mexico, live in the United States.
"The marches didn't achieve anything last year and there was no real focus this time," said Salvador Reza, coordinator of the Macehualli Day Labor Center in Phoenix. "People would go out if there was reason to go out."
Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University in Houston, said the protests were smaller because activists had lost their momentum during an election year when the issue had largely been put on the back burner.
"I think as an issue it has died away, it isn't an issue in the campaigns," Jones said. "They don't see the need to react to (presidential candidates) Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain. It's much harder to mobilize people around a messy compromise when there is not a threat."
A march in Chicago drew only about 2,000 people along the same route into downtown that attracted tens of thousands in the past two years.
About 1,500 protesters gathered in the south end of New York's Union Square, opposing immigration raids they say had increased on Amtrak passenger trains and Greyhound buses.
In one major raid last month, U.S. immigration agents arrested about 400 employees at five Pilgrim's Pride Corp chicken plants from West Virginia to Texas in connection with immigration-related crimes, including identity theft.
"It's too late for this president to do anything on immigration reform. We're looking to press the next president hard," Fausto Sicha, 27, an Ecuadorean student, said at the New York rally.
In Washington, several hundred immigrants and activists called for an end to workplace raids.
"We're here to request that they (authorities) show some mercy and stop the raids and legalize us," said Teodulfa Alvarez, an illegal immigrant and mother of two living in Virginia.
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix, Andrew Stern in Chicago, Timothy Gardner in New York and Adriana Garcia in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Immigrant Legislative Updates - 2007
6/28: Senate Killed the Immigration Bill, Statements from National Immigrant Solidarity Network
Today (6/28), the Senate killed the immigration bill by 46 to 53 vote, meaning that the issue is most likely dead until after the 2008 elections.
It's an unfortunate but expected outcome for a immigrant bill that almost no one supports. The proposal is unacceptable and unreasonable, most community-based organizations had against the bill while only few "pro-immigrant" Democratic and President Bush will supports it, at end--also ironically, we helped the right-wing anti-immigrant groups to claim "credits" for their work on defeating the bill.
This is NOT an "amnesty" bill, this is a bill will continue and even expand the institutional racist and oppressive measures to against the immigrant communities, escalating the militarization of the border, and giving migrants empty and unrealistic promises for path to the citizenship (For the detailed analysis, please go: http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/legislation.html)
Lessons we should learn:
1) The Failure of "Bi-Partisan" Politics: We should NEVER expect "moderate" Republicans--and many Democratic--will cooperate honestly to push for a truly bi-partisan immigrant legislation that will be benefit us. We should also NEVER expect most Democratic leaderships (although they are better then Republicans) will have courage to draft a true immigrant legislation that will be benefit us--just like what happened on the recent Military budget and Iraqi funding bill.
2) Never Accepts "Less Then Perfect": Some bill supporters had been misleading and even threaten to say if we don't accepts the "less then perfect" bill--we'll never get anything. In reality, we cannot supports the bill because it's far worse then "less then perfect." No one should arguing "separation but equal" is the best solution for our survival. We should ask for the best, fight for the best and push for the best!
3) Know Your Friends, Never Say Never: The latest immigrant legislation shows the disconnections between most Congressional leaderships/major organizations, vs. the community-based organizations at the local level. The true people's movement should be bottoms-up from the community, not tops-down from the organization's headquarters by experts and leaders. A true immigrant rights/civil rights/human rights movements should be build based on mutual understanding, trust and honest exchange of ideas, and to build a equal partnerships to work together.
The fight for rights and dignity for all immigrants is a long-term struggle, it won't change only for one legislation--it's a life-long struggle, it need decades--even generations of activists tirelessly fighting before we'll able to achieve our success.
Let's all hope from the lessons we learn today, we'll be more wiser and we'll be prevail.
Related Articles:
6/30: Immigration battle shifting to states, cities
6/30: Experts say failure of Senate immigration bill can be lesson for U.S. Congress
6/29: Immigrant Bill Dies in Senate; Defeat for Bush
6/28: NILC Statement on Senate Vote
6/28: CHIRLA DISAPPOINTED BY SENATE’S FAILURE TO PASS JUST AND HUMANE IMMIGRATION REFORM
6/28: STATEMENT OF LA FAMILIA LATINA UNIDA/SIN FRONTERAS AND ADALBERTO UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
6/28: LULAC CALLS ON CONGRESS TO CHART A NEW COURSE ON IMMIGRATION
6/28: Senate Blocks Effort to Revive Immigration Overhaul
USCIS:
The USCIS, or the United States Citizen and Immigration Service, is a department within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The USCIS was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The USCIS consists of approximately 15,000 employees and 250 field offices around the world.
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