Immigrant Rights Protests Turn the Tide

A contingent of Colombian immigrants march, part of an estimated 100,000 immigrants-rights advocates in New York City, and a million or more across the country, who demonstrated on April 10, 2006. Photo: Diane Greene Lent

Oakland put itself on the map this morning, April 10, 2006. Nearly 20,000 people marched in Oakland. The demonstration started deep in east Oakland and made its way down International Boulevard to the Federal Building. Then, because there wasn't enough room for everyone, the rally moved to Oakland's City Hall Plaza. Overwhelmingly Latino, the march included youth, families, babies in strollers, students, and young and older workers.

Many carried US flags, but there were also Virgen de Guadalupe banners, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and other Latin American flags and a sprinkling of Che, Zapata, and Jesus banners. Imagine all the workers who took the day off and the risks they took to stand up for their rights.

So much is possible with a bit of heart, courage, and vision.

 One of the new chants I heard was, "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos y si nos echan, regresamos!" (We're here, and we're not leaving, and if we're deported, we will return ñ it rhymes in Spanish). Many signs declared, "We demand justice, liberty & equality." Nowhere were there cries for "guest workers," or "three-tiers," or "border militarization."

Many chanted "Si se puede" (Yes, we can ñ a slogan popularized by the United Farm Workers), and "El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido" (The people, united, will never be defeated). All demanded legalization.

In cities and towns across the country, hundreds of thousands marched for legalization; 500,000 in Dallas, 100,000 in San Diego and New York, 20,000 in Sacramento, 5,000-10,000 in Salem, OR and Philadelphia. Thousands also rallied in Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Fresno, Portland, Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, Durango, Santa Fe, Chicago, San Jose, Houston and many other places outside the major media markets — Yakima Valley, the Rio Grande Valley, North Carolina and other parts of the South.

What's the significance of these mobilizations? First, they are the product of ten years of organizing and mobilizing for legalization. The attacks of September 11, 2001 slowed this powerful grassroots movement, but now it is moving again. Before 9/11, the legalization movement had beaten back attempts by the INS to implement its draconian deportation strategy. INS raids were checkmated and the movement proposed solutions, demanding legalization, border demilitarization, and an end to employer sanctions.

After 9/11 however, much of this progress was lost. Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities were raided, the further militarization and fortification of the Mexican-American border was planned, and the Minutemen allowed to flourish (Ed. Note: The Minutemen are anti-immigrant vigilantes who patrol the border attempting to turn immigrants over to the US Border Patrol).

In 2005, the Sensenbrenner-King bill proposed criminalizing millions of immigrants. However, it also energized millions across the country and gave the Immigrant Rights movement new life.

The energy is here to do more outreach, to organize forums and spaces for people to deepen their knowledge about what's at stake and to talk about how we can move forward. We need to build the organizational channels to help focus this spontaneous outburst of energy. If we continue to ground our efforts in our communities, it will be difficult if not impossible to beat us back. Peace without borders!