Immigrants come out 2,000,000 strong

Like a giant tidal wave sweeping across the country, documented and undocumented immigrants and their supporters turned out over 2 million strong in rallies in more than 140 cities on April 10, called a National Day of Action on Immigrant Rights. Their impact was felt on the streets and in the workplaces.

The main demands were for legalization of the 11-12 million undocumented workers living in the United States, a path to citizenship, protection of workers’ rights and the ability to bring families together. The demonstrators shouted, “No turning back!” This new massive movement now plans a boycott and strike action for May 1.

The depth of this historic movement was especially evident in the number of rallies in places with no previous demonstrations and that most took place on a work day.

Speakers at the many rallies included more trade unionists and Black community leaders than previously, along with elected politicians, religious leaders and representatives of the undocumented workers themselves.

An April 11 Wall Street Journal article noted the protests’ impact on the economy: “Meatpacking, construction and retail—especially in the South and Midwest—were among industries affected by absenteeism as workers attended protests.... The demonstrations, and their effect on businesses, could foreshadow what may be a bigger national boycott planned for May 1.”

Major demonstrations were also held on April 9 in several cities. As many as half-a-million people march ed that day in the largest civil rights demon stration in Dallas history. “This is the first real social movement, bottom-up, grass-roots movement of the 21st century,” said Jose Angel Gutierrez, a longtime Latino activist. “Mexicans and other Latino immigrants are outing themselves and saying, ‘You’re not inviting me to the table, so I’m taking to the streets.’”

Like many others who participated in Sunday’s march, Gutierrez said he would not be going to work on Monday.

Another 30,000 marched in nearby Fort Worth. In Dallas and in North Carolina, immigrant groups called for an economic boycott the next day to show their financial impact.

In Houston on April 10, groups of workers still wearing their uniforms simply left work at noon to participate in a march of 10,000. A group of Halliburton workers marched alongside workers from a bottled-water company. Behind them was the Pakistan American Council of Texas. There were flags from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Palestine, along with the U.S. flag, and banners and t-shirts quoting Emiliano Zapata, a leader of the 1910 Mexican Revolution: “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

“San Diego has never seen anything like this,” said Workers World organizer Bob McCubbin. The rally there consisted of families, youth, students, workers’ organizations, community groups, teachers and activists, but mainly it was the Latin@ working class. The historic gathering, estimated at over 50,000, came just a little over a week after a series of electrifying student walkouts that resulted in the arrests of several youth and harassment of their families.

Altogether over 21 cities in California held planned demonstrations, including a rally at the federal building in Santa Ana at noon and candlelight vigils in the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles.

In Atlanta, the March for Dignity on April 10 with at least 60,000 was the largest political demonstration in the city’s recent history. Rev. Timothy McDonald and James Orange, two of Atlanta’s most prominent Black progressive leaders, called for unity among all those marginalized by the system and applauded the struggle of immigrants for their rights.

International Action Center organizer Dianne Mathiowetz described the scene: “People were streaming in from every direction—whole families with small children and babies in carriages, groups of men wearing t-shirts from their jobs as painters, electricians, landscapers, etc. People were coming out of their homes for blocks and blocks and walking miles to get [to the rally]. Traffic in the area was absolutely deadlocked with people looking for places to park.”

Organizers reported that 500,000 protesters converged on the National Mall and marched in Washington, D.C. People poured out of every community. Demonstrators marched from bus stops at the D.C./Maryland border into the city. Many youths also left high schools in Virginia, Maryland and the district to join the protest.

Sharon Black described it this way: “For many of the youth who participated in the march you could clearly sense the feeling of liberation and empowerment. Most were from the surrounding Washington D.C. Salvadoran community. Many demon strators had obviously come straight from work—construction workers with muddy boots, custodial workers with company uni forms, nurses, teachers with school t-shirts.

“From the bridge overlooking 16th Street, African-American pedestrians stopped to wave and shout. In front of the National Education Association a group of a hundred supporters came out and held signs. Office workers all along the route cheered in support. A group called Arabs for Immigrant Rights hung banners from their office building. At 16th and I Street, a group of Asian workers joined the march.”

Philadelphia’s Love Park was filled beyond capacity as over 7,000 immigrant rights activists, students, unionists and workers on lunch hours gathered for a noon-time rally. Feeder marches came from Chinatown and the Mexican communities. Speakers included representatives from the Hoyu Chinese American Associ ation; the Union de Trabajadores de Kaoli (mushroom workers’ union); the African and Caribbean Affairs Council; Asian Americans United; several Latin@ immigrant organizations; Pennsylvania State Wide Coalition of Black Clergy; union leaders and student groups.

The park’s center fountain was ringed with colorful banners; Korean drummers performed at one end of the park while mariachis sang their way through the crowd. Rally organizers called for participants to join in the next round of actions on May 1, and participants grabbed up fliers calling for May Day rallies.

The rally area in St. Paul, Minn., was so crowded with the 30,000 immigrants and supporters who gathered around the State Capitol that most couldn’t even hear the speeches. But the message was clear. Speakers included Hmong and African immigrants along with a majority from Latin America. They called for comprehensive immigration reform and challenged the draconian Sensenbrenner Bill HR4437.

Over 125,000 people marched on City Hall in downtown New York City, including a contingent of 7,000 organized by Immigrant Communities in Action, a coalition that includes many anti-imperialist and national liberation organizations, including CAAAV-Organizing Asian Communities, DAMAYAN Migrant Work ers Association, DRUM- Desis Rising Up and Moving, and the Justice 4 Immigrants Filipino Coalition (Philippine Forum, Anakbayan NY/NJ). The ICA contingent also included representatives from lesbian/gay/bi/trans organizations, including the Audre Lorde Project, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment (FIERCE), and Queers for Racial and Economic Justice.

In Miami some 7,000 demonstrators gathered downtown on April 9, filling the bowl outside the Government Center and clogging the streets in a march to the Torch of Friendship on Biscayne Boulevard. It was the largest immigrant rights march in South Florida since the Senate began its debate on immigration reform last month.

In a stunning display of defiance, courage, pride and dignity, well over 10,000 immigrants and their allies marched in Boston from the Commons to Copley Square on April 10 with rallies at both sites. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Coali tion, the main demands were “Legalization, not criminalization” and “No to racist legislation.” A wide array of multinational contingents from African countries as well as Asia, the Caribbean, Eur ope, Latin America and the Middle East participated in the actions. Many hoisted flags of their homelands and beautiful multi-colored banners.

Large labor delegations from the Service Employees and UNITE HERE participated as well as Food and Commercial Workers and Steelworkers Local 8751, the school bus drivers’ union. People cheered and carried placards reading “La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras!” (There are no borders in the workers’ struggle!) and “We are workers, not criminals.” Accord ing to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern Uni versity, Massachusetts has the seventh-largest documented immigrant population—about 14 percent of all residents—and approximately 200,000 undocumented workers statewide.

Salt Lake City organizers of the “Dignity March” put the turnout for Sunday’s rally and march at around 40,000—a truly historic figure since the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in Utah is only 90,000. Tony Yapias of Proyecto Latino de Utah, who started organizing the march two weeks earlier with his group, was amazed by the size of the crowd. Volunteers had passed out fliers at Latin@ dance clubs, markets and schools from southern Utah to Wyoming. “We knew there was an interest, but we had no idea how many people would show up,” Yapias said.

In Birmingham, Ala., 4,000 people marched from Linn Park to Kelly Ingram Park, the historic site of the civil rights movement where police turned fire hoses on Black children in 1963. The rally called for a comprehensive plan for immigration reform that would provide undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship, worker protection and family visas.

Rev. Darrell Wilson of the Alabama Southern Christian Leadership Council in Birmingham embraced the link between the historic civil rights movement and today’s struggle for immigrant rights, saying, “Here you stand up for yourselves. Stand up for everyone. And most of all, stand up for your children.”

Elsewhere 4,000 marched in Boise, Idaho. There were also rallies in Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Pitts burgh, where protesters gathered outside Sen. Arlen Specter’s office. Yinka Aganga Williams, who moved to the U.S. from Nigeria six years ago, joined the group outside Specter’s office, noting, “This country was built by immigrants, Pittsburgh in particular.”

In Jackson, Miss., 500 demonstrators sang “We Shall Overcome” in Spanish. In St. Louis, thousands stood silent for one minute on Sunday to remember those who have died trying to come to the U.S.

In Arizona over 50,000 protesters turned out in Phoenix, while several thou sand others demonstrated in Tucson. In Champaign, hundreds of demonstrators marched along a busy street to the University of Illinois campus with signs reading, “The Pilgrims had no green cards.” Protesters also turned out in Portland, Maine., and Harrisburg, Pa.

An estimated 3,000 people demonstrated in Garden City, Kan., a farming community in the southwest corner of the state that numbers fewer than 30,000 residents. Rallies in Dodge City, Kan. and Schuyler, Neb. had a noticeable impact on production at Excel Corporation, the nation’s second-largest beef processor, as many workers were gone for the day.

About 25,000 immigrant workers and supporters marched on the Federal Building in Seattle. African-American County Executive Ron Sims told themarchers that about 20 percent of Seattle residents were born in another country, emphasizing the demand for full civil rights for all. Huge marches were also held in the cities of Portland and Salem, Ore.

Over 2,000 protested in front of
Rep. Peter King’s office in suburban Massapequa Park, on Long Island, N.Y. King is the co-author of the brutal anti-immigrant bill HR 4437. Everyone cheered when May First Coalition member Carlos Canales called for support for the “Paro de Primero Mayo,” the May Day strike to support workers’ rights and immigrant rights. “That will be ‘a day without immigrants’ in the U.S. econo my,” said Saul, a factory worker and an organizer from Hempstead’s Workplace Project. Then he took his megaphone and chanted, “King, escucha, ¡estamos en la lucha!” (“Listen, King, we are in the struggle!”)

Students walked out from McNair Aca demic High School in Jersey City, N.J., an hour before the school officially was dismissed, chanting, “Si se puede” (Yes, we can), “Schools are prisons” and “The people united will never be divided.” The students’ families came from many countries including Mexico, the Domin ican Republic, Puerto Rico, Pales tine, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philip pines. They were joined by Afri can Amer icans and whites. Mothers of the students who walked out were there in solidarity.

Over 4,000 people then attended a rally at Liberty State Park located between Ellis Island, the entrance point for millions of mostly European immigrants in the early 20th century, and the Statue of Liberty.

Imani Henry, Bob McCubbin, Dianne Mathiowetz, Sharon Black, Bryan Pfeifer, Gloria Rubac, Jim McMahon, Heather Cottin, Monica Moorehead and Pat Hilliard contributed to this article.