NEW YORK CITY: Thousands of people have poured into streets across the United States in a push to overhaul immigration and end the legal limbo of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The coast-to-coast activities saw about 3,000 demonstrators – mostly Asian, Hispanic and Arab – demonstrate in New York before marching over the landmark Brooklyn Bridge, as counterparts in California marched in Hollywood.
In all, protesters marched in 160 US cities.
“What we need is to win over peacefully those who are opposed. We have got to get a deal struck,” said Danick Martinez, 30, a Honduran who has been living and working illegally in the country for almost a decade.
The March for Dignity and Respect was organized by the New York Immigration Coalition and other groups supporting legalization of undocumented workers.
Organizers said they hoped to rally up to 130,000 people to push Congress to adopt comprehensive legislation to give a path toward US citizenship to the more than 11 million US residents who are living illegally in the shadows.
“Here in New York, we have a special obligation,” said mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.
“We are the city of immigrants, and we are proud about it.
We have to lead the way.”
Officials estimate there are about half a million undocumented workers in New York alone. The overwhelming majority of the undocumented are Hispanic, most from neighboring Mexico and many from Central and South America.
President Barack Obama has sought to give a pathway to citizenship to the undocumented millions but negotiations with opposition Republicans in Congress have bogged down.
THOUSANDS MARCH INÂ PHOENIX
PHOENIX: College students, parents, grandparents and young children were among an estimated 3,000 people who marched through downtown Phoenix as part of a nationwide effort to kick-start stalled immigration reform efforts in Washington.
The marchers wearing red shirts were led by drummers and carried flags and banners as they chanted “Si, se Puede!” and “Yes, we can,” the motto of the United Farmworkers Union that has been embraced by immigration activists.
They carried signs calling for respect and rallied at the federal courthouse at the end of the miles-long march.
The march was one of many planned across the nation on a “National Day for Dignity and Respect” by groups that support immigrants, including events in Tucson and Yuma. There was a heavy police presence, but Phoenix police reported no problems.
“We are very frustrated, because a lot of families are being torn apart because of this immigration problem we’re having,” said Rosanna Castro, a 28-year-old mother of five who is a U.S. citizen but has immigrants in her family. “So we’re asking for this immigration reform to help keep our families together. And also to give children an opportunity to be able to finish high school and go on to college and a career and not just stop at high school.”
A handful of people opposed to immigration reform gathered across from the federal courthouse in front of a banner urging the government not to repeat the amnesty included in a 1986 immigration reform measure.
“All I want is our laws enforced. And people need to know that there’s two sides to this story,” said Valerie Roller, from Glendale. She noted pictures on a banner that showed Arizonans killed by people who were in the country illegally. While she supported the activists’ right to march, she said she wanted those without legal status gone.
“My premise is that if we enforce the laws we have, the majority of them will do self-deportation,” Roller said.
Many who marched brought their families, with strollers and wagons filled with young children common.
Maria Del Carmen Polano, 55, who immigrated from the south-central Mexican state of Morelos 26 years ago, said she wanted deportations that tear families apart stopped and wanted to raise her voice against what she called “all the racism that’s been going on here in Arizona for many years.”
“This message is not just for the government here in Arizona but it’s for the government of all the United States, especially for President Obama,” she said in Spanish as her daughter, Nubia Martinez, interpreted. “Congress can fix the situation, because deep down inside even though they might hate to admit it, they need us. Because not too many Americans are willing to do what we call the cheap labor” such as people working at restaurants and hotels or in agriculture.
An immigration reform plan pushed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers has passed the Senate but has been stalled in the House.
Miguel Solis, a 26-year-old who was brought to the U.S. from the central Pacific coast state of Michoacan when he was 12, said he has benefited from last year’s presidential decree giving legal status to young immigrants who haven’t been in legal trouble.
“Like every other (person), I have a dream, and I’m going to school, I’m working and I want to get my degree,” said Solis, who is working and going to college. He said he wanted others to feel the relief he’s experiencing.
“There’s a big difference, because before I used to be afraid of the sheriff, I used to be afraid of the police,” Solis said. “And like other immigrants, we tried to live under profile, not trying to be on the streets that much because we all are scared like someday we’re gonna get pulled and they’re going to ask for papers and maybe get deported.”
2,000 MARCHÂ IN HOLLYWOOD
LOS ANGELES: About 2,000 supporters of immigration reform marched through Hollywood as part of rallies nationwide to push for congressional action, while California’s governor signed a series of bills on the topic, saying he was not going to wait on Washington.
The Los Angeles demonstration called “March of the Stars” kicked off shortly after Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that included a bill prohibiting local law enforcement agencies from detaining people for deportation if they are arrested for a minor crime and otherwise eligible to be released from custody.
“While Washington waffles on immigration, California’s forging ahead,” Brown said. “I’m not waiting.”
March organizers in Los Angeles had expected tens of thousands to turn out to the rally, which was among some 150 demonstrations on a day billed as the “National Day for Dignity and Respect.” Roughly 2,000 people participated, some holding signs that read “Education Not Deportation” and “Congress get back to work!” Others carried elephant pinatas, blaming the impasse on Republicans.
Immigration has been a rare area of bipartisan cooperation. Confidence was boosted earlier in the year on a sweeping overhaul of the system and a path to citizenship for millions, but the crisis over Syria, and now the partial shutdown of the federal government, has diverted lawmakers’ attention.
The chances an immigration bill makes its way through Congress before the year ends are slim. But advocates want to make sure reform stays front and center despite lawmakers’ pressing concerns.
“This cannot be stopped,” said activist Eliseo Medina, marching in Los Angeles. “This is growing.”
In Los Angeles, which has a massive Mexican-American population, Mexican-born Francisco Cabrera said: “we came to work; that is all we do.”
“We are not a burden. We are just trying to help our families,” stressed Cabrera, 52.
“Our problem is that we are poor. Republicans have to realize that we are going to benefit the country economically.” The Alliance for Citizenship, a broad coalition of organizations that includes the AFL-CIO, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, is driving the mobilization.
Twenty cities in California were staging events to show their support.
Among the eight immigration-related measures Brown signed was AB4, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, which creates a statewide standard for how local agencies comply with the federal Secure Communities program, which requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone who is arrested.
The governor vetoed a similar measure last year because it did not let officials detain those convicted of crimes such as child abuse and drug trafficking, exemptions that were removed from this year’s version.
The governor also approved a bill allowing lawyers to be admitted to the California bar even if they are living in the U.S. illegally.
DOZENS TAKEÂ PART IN NJ
FREEHOLD, N.J.: Dozens of people have taken to the streets in a central New Jersey town to call for reforms in the nation’s immigration laws.
Among those who marched to the Latino Festival of Monmouth County in Freehold were immigrants from several countries and members of labor unions and community activists group.
The events were part of the “National Day for Dignity and Respect,” which organizers said was a coordinated effort in 80 cities across the country to bring reform with a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Some counter-protesters were also on hand for the event, but authorities say no problems were reported.
HUNDREDSÂ RALLY IN BOSTON
BOSTON: Several hundred immigrants and supporters who marched in Boston as part of rallies nationwide are pressing Republicans controlling the U.S. House of Representatives to pass immigration reform.
Group spokesman Frank Soults said people came from Boston and communities around Massachusetts. They gathered at Copley Square and marched past Bank of America branches, where they demanded the bank stop contributing to House Speaker John Boehner because he refuses to put a Senate-backed immigration overhaul to a vote. Soults said marchers were locked out of the bank as it conducted business.
They demanded an end to mass deportations and passage of Massachusetts legislation to allow immigrants living in the country illegally to secure driver’s licenses and to prevent police from indiscriminately checking the immigration status of detainees.
500 RALLY INÂ LAS CRUCES
LAS CRUCES, N.M.: Organizers say about 500 people who want Congress to pass immigration reform marched in Las Cruces and rallied outside Republican Rep. Steve Pearce’s office.
Jose Manuel Escobedo of the Border Network for Human Rights says about 200 marchers from the El Paso area joined 300 New Mexicans at the rally.
Escobedo says his group opposes Pearce’s push to deny immigrants citizenship as part of the overhaul and a bill he’s pushing allowing local police to enforce federal immigration laws.-AP, AFP
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