Immigration Marches & Rallies

Today, all across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in favor of protecting the rights of immigrants.

The rallies, part of what some organizers were calling the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice, drew factory workers, domestic workers, laborers at dairy farms, construction workers, older people, and babies in strollers. The marches were peaceful, and many of them had a picnic-like atmosphere, with Spanish music providing a backdrop to the assertive talk of new rights for a group that has until recently lived in the shadows. (NYT)

This movement, in essence a plea for human dignity, is comparable to the Civil Rights movement of the 60s:

The national day of protest, the biggest in a wave of rallies that some have compared to the 1960s civil rights movement, was provoked by legislation in Congress that would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons, punish those who employ or help them, and fence off sections of the U.S. border with Mexico.

"You are never free until you are legal. I came to get a better life. Everyone deserves the same," said Denise Jules, 68, of Haiti, who held a sign at a rally in New York saying, "Liberty and justice for all." (Reuters)

Some of the largest and most diverse protests were in New York:

Thick crowds gathered in New York's Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall. Many waved flags, both American and of countries of their origin. Korean-Americans beat drums nearby. Another group marched from Chinatown, and a third demonstration took place in Brooklyn.

One of the Korean drummers, Grace Nam, 35, who is an American citizen, said: "We just need to make our voices heard. You want to live in a place where people are treated with dignity." (AP)

Many of the immigrants who participated had to first overcome their fear:

Among the marchers crossing the Brooklyn Bridge to the City Hall rally was Manuel Gomez, 32, who acknowledged that as an illegal immigrant, he was nervous about attending the rally. "But we have no choice," he said. Mr. Gomez, a carpenter, said that because he did not have the proper legal papers, he had not been back to Cuenca, Ecuador, since 1990 and could not go to his father's funeral two months ago. "I haven't seen my mother in 16 years," he said. "It hurts on my heart." (NYT)

Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy addressed the crowds in Washington D.C.:

"Dr Martin Luther King Jr. called on the nation to let freedom ring," Kennedy told the Washington rally. "It is time for Americans to lift their voices once again -- this time in pride for our immigrant past and in support of our immigrant future. (Reuters)

Some thoughts of my own:

Watching the coverage of these massive marches on cable news tonight was, in a word, infuriating. The single-minded (simple-minded?) focus of CNN and Fox on the "illegality" of the immigrants overshadowed the historic character of these rallies.

Those who oppose "rewarding" these "law-breakers" with an amnesty seem to miss the irony of their own argument. Has it not occurred to them that the very reason we as a nation are now intensely debating our immigration policy is precisely because our current laws don't work?

On one hand, the United States offers the poor of other countries the prospect of hard work with decent pay, and the chance for workers to better provide for their families. (Aka: "The American Dream".)

On the other hand, though, what the U.S. doesn't offer is a legal way for these same workers to enter the United States.

In Guatemala, for example, it is impossible for a person of limited resources to obtain a tourist visa to the US... much less a work visa! There isn't an immigrant alive who wouldn't prefer to enter into the US legally, with all the protections that this would imply.

Instead, out of desperation, immigrants are forced to pay smugglers thousands of dollars (often their life savings); travel through Mexico confronting gangs, robberies, and rape; cross a deadly desert; and then - if they're lucky enough to actually make it across the border - spend the rest of their time in the States living on the margins of law and society.

Here's my suggestion: Let's fix our immigration laws before we start labeling people as "illegal". After all, how can these hard-working immigrants be breaking the law... when the law was already "broken" long before they arrived?

As Mahatma Gandhi once affirmed: “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”

For your consideration, I'm including a photograph of one of the many "illegals" who don't even make it to the United States. While visiting Honduras some years ago I met a campesino farmer whose son had tried to travel to the U.S. in hopes of getting a job and supporting his impoverished family.

Unfortunately the son fell victim to a gang of thieves who prey on immigrants in Tapachula, Mexico. They pushed the young boy from the moving train. He fell to the tracks and both of his legs were instantly amputated.

Thankfully Mexican doctors were able to save his life. But he would be returning to Honduras not as the hope and support of his needy family, but rather as an invalid... and a further drain on their meager resources.

Don't you think that if the possibility had existed for this young man to travel safely and legally to the U.S. he would have jumped at the opportunity?

Instead he is yet another victim of the United States' broken immigration policy.

Resources:

Immigration Advocates Rally Across U.S., by Maria Newman - New York Times

Thousands Demonstrate Over Immigration, by Deepti Hajela, Associated Press

Immigration rallies sweep US, by Andy Sullivan and Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

www.April10.org

Images from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement website

Tags: Guatemala, Immigration, Immigrants, Marches, News

Posted by elcanche at April 10, 2006 09:32 PM